Better Left Unsaid
by ohsnapxitsemyy
Summary: There was a time when I thought Slytherin girls jinxing me, Cormac McLaggen stalking me, and my inability to stay out of detention were the only things I had to worry about. Since befriending Draco Malfoy, however, my life has become a magnet for trouble
1. Chapter 1

Padma Patil marched through the crowd, elbowing people out of the way as she went, a huge grin plastered on her face. She finally reached me, not bothering to apologize to the second year she nearly beheaded with her book bag, and stood there beaming at me. After standing there like an idiot for a few seconds in silence, I figured that she was not going to say why she was so happy until I asked her first.

"What's up, Padma?" I asked cautiously as I slid my potions book back into my bag. "Are you going to tell me what's got you so excited or am I going to have to curse it out of you?"

"Guess what," she squealed and, before giving me time to come up with an answer, she went on, "you are looking at the new president of the Charms Club!"

"Wow…that's..er, great Padma." I personally thought admitting you were in the Charms Club was bad enough, let alone admitting being the president of it.

We've been best friends since we shared a desk in potions class first year and bonded over our mutual dislike of Professor Snape. Inseparable, I might add, even though we're in different houses. We've laughed together, cried together, and all that other together stuff. She's my only best friend, but she's true blue.

"I start tomorrow and my first order of busi-"

She was cut off suddenly by a pissed off seventh year who stated that Professor Snape wanted to see me in his office and if I wasn't there in five minutes from the time the message was delivered he would personally fail me for the rest of the term.

I sent a quick look of resignation to Padma before weaving my way through the thinning crowd to Professor Snape's office. It was only the first week of term and I had somehow managed to find my way back on the top of his "Students I Hate" list. Well, correction, Harry Potter was the obvious number one pick but, despite the fact that I was a member of his house, I was a close second.

By the end of last school year his office had become a second home to me because I spent so much time there. And it was never because he felt the need to congratulate me on my good grades. It was usually for things like getting the house elves to do my homework or painting my nails in Professor Burbage's class.

Evidently Professor Burbage was highly allergic to nail polish and couldn't stop sneezing for half the class. Her lecture for the day consisted of small snippets on how to use a camera followed by large amounts of sneezing.

The whole class thought it was hilarious, but she still hasn't forgiven me and to this day she still will not allow me to take anything into her classroom that resembles a bottle of nail polish.

Today, however, I knew why I was being called into Snape's office.

The day before I had been held after class to discuss my Transfiguration homework with Professor McGonagall, because I had fallen asleep mid-way through, so I was late for my study session with Padma. I was rushing down the hall when I noticed a sickle on the ground by the stairs

I am fully aware that a sickle is not that much money, but, being broke, I understood the countless possibilities. I hurried over to pick it up, but since I was carrying five books stacked on top of one another, my Defense Against the Dark Arts book slipped from the pile and bounced down three flights of stairs.

I groaned internally. Padma was really looking forward to studying for some reason and I was going to be late for sure. Instead of running down three flights of stairs, where I would surely drop all my books or fall and crack my head open, I decided to take a short cut. I'd slid down the banister and just hop off where my textbook had landed.

I quickly hopped onto the banister, situating my other four books between the underside of my left arm and left hip as I went. Using my right hand, I pushed off the top of the banister and down I went. My dark, curly hair whipped behind me and I smiled, enjoying the sensation …until a broom closet at the foot of the stairs opened and Filch bustled out.

I was sure that if he didn't move I would either collide with him at full force or fall off the banister. He spun around just in time to see me flying down the hand rail, but unfortunately he is pretty old and not very fast, so the smooth landing I had planned turned into an absolute massacre.

I ended up colliding with Filch and I remember thinking how dead I was going to be when my mom found out as we careened down six flights of stairs, Filch on his stomach going head first and me situated awkwardly on his back as I clutched my books and screamed.

Before we hit the last staircase, I grabbed a hold of the banister to stop myself, leaving Filch to bounce, roll, and slid down the remaining stairs, landing with a nasty thud on his back at the bottom where he lay motionless.

"Um, sorry," I offered up weakly after a moment of deep breathing. When he didn't move I figured it would be best to leave and explain to Professor Dumbledore later how I accidently killed the caretaker.

And that was why I was headed toward the dreaded dungeons.

I entered Professor Snape's office, where I instantly wrinkled my nose at the sight of newly jarred rat brains. He swiveled around at the click of his office door shutting and I tried my best to put on the most innocent face I could muster.

"Sit down," he said forcefully and I obeyed immediately. "Well, Miss Garcia, believe it or not, it seems that someone else has accused you of doing something wrong."

I pretended to be shocked.

"It seems that yesterday afternoon Filch was preparing to mop the floors when a student seen sliding down the banister plowed into him, knocking him unconscious, and throwing him down several flights of stairs. He was very badly bruised."

"A U.F.S sighting? Sir, are you sure he didn't suffer any head injuries?" I inquired, looking as concerned as I possibly dared to.

"A U.F.S sighting?" Snape drawled out dangerously.

"An Unidentified Flying Student." I managed to turn a giggle into a cough.

"Miss Garcia," Snape seemed to inflate as he began the usual lecture, "I know you did it. Filch says he saw you-"

I interrupted. "But, if Filch is seeing things-"

"I assure you he is certainly not seeing things!" he cut me off. His voice had risen to an almost-shout.

I was quiet for a moment, letting him take the time to deflate. I knew that Professor Snape wouldn't take house points from me (he was far too into his house than his pride would ever admit), but I was banking on a few detentions tacked on before I left the room.

He glared at me for another moment after the deflation occurred, adding on in a dangerously quiet voice that I would have detention with him for the next three Saturdays before shooing me out of his office.

I was actually very surprised he only gave me three (his average is six to ten), but then I figured he was in a slightly better mood than last year after being named the professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts. With a new skip to my step, I ran from his office, down the hall, and all the way to Professor Binn's classroom.

Taking that newly found sickle out of my pocket (I knew I would find a good use for it), I quickly took aim at the back of Padma's head.

"Ow!" she exclaimed quite loudly. Everyone seemed to jump out of their stupor to glance toward her. Professor Binns, obviously not fazed, droned on about Goblin wars. She raised her hand quietly before asking if she could use the restroom. Binns nodded his translucent head, not even bothering to stop his lecture.

As she grabbed her book bag and walked out of the classroom, I turned around quickly and headed toward the girls' bathroom. She took the hint and followed me. As the door to the bathroom closed, she rounded on me, asking me what had happened with Professor Snape.

I waved her off, not wanting to explain my ride down the stairs on Filch, the Incredible Human Toboggan. "I need to see your essay on ways to ward off vampires," I jumped in, as she had just opened her mouth to probably state that she knew I was lying.

Her mouth shut tightly as she narrowed her eyes. "Natalie Maria Garcias. Don't tell me that you didn't do the essay from over the summer. Professor Snape wants us to hand it in tomorrow."

Of course I wasn't going to tell her that I didn't do it. Did she think I was that much of an idiot?

"No, no, no," I rushed in with wide, innocent eyes, "I finished it ages ago. I just wanted to make sure that I hit all the correct points. I know how good you are at writing essays."

Her narrowed eyes softened as she turned toward her book bag. "Oh, erm, sorry. Yeah, you can borrow it. I just need it back by tonight."

I took the rolled up essay carefully from her hands, wanting to show her that I took the work she did with high regard. Which, of course, I did considering she is probably the main reason I passed all my exams.

"Oh, I have to head to potions. I'll catch you later," I grinned at her as I backed slowly out of the bathroom. She eyed the essay the entire time before it dawned on her. "Hey! You didn't really do the essay did you?"

"Nope!" I yelled back as I booked it out of the bathroom, not wanting to give her the chance to steal the essay back.

As I rounded a corner a few hallways away from the girls' bathroom, I ran headlong into a tall something. I shrieked as I fell to the floor, dropping the essay, and spilling my books across the stone floor. I glared up, expecting to see another statue that Peeves had moved, but to my unfortunate surprise saw Draco Malfoy instead.

I groaned outwardly. He was one of the prefects of the Slytherin house and always went out of his way to make my life a living hell. I had been successful in avoiding him and his crew for the first week of school.

"Oh look, isn't it the blood traitor," Pansy sneered as she jumped at the chance to insult me. Great, I thought as I glanced behind him, I was getting the full monty today. A few feet behind him stood Crabbe and Goyle, smirking slightly as they cracked their knuckles menacingly.

"Ah, moved on from mudblood lover, have we?" I quipped back as I stood up, brushing the dust off my skirt. Last term the Dream Team of Insults did nothing but call me "Garcia" or "Mudblood Lover." Evidently they spent the entire summer coming up with new, cutting-edge names.

Pansy smirked. "Nice outfit."

I was slightly taken aback by this. "Huh?"

She rolled her eyes. "I said nice outfit. What are you, deaf?" I heard a few sniggers erupt from Crabbe and Goyle. Malfoy's face remained motionless.

"What are you, blind? We're wearing the same thing."

She looked down at herself quickly, her smirk only faltering for a moment before she hitched it back on and replied, "Well, at least some people can pull this look off."

I stared at her incredulously for a moment. "Are you kidding me? No one can pull this look off. We're wearing pleated skirts and knee high socks."

Malfoy seemed to think that it wasn't the right time for verbal humiliation, so he stepped in front of Pansy, picked up Padma's essay off the ground, and started to unroll it.

"What is this?" he smirked as he started to read it. "A love letter from another blood traitor?" These people really needed to work on their witty comebacks.

"It's an essay, Malfoy. Ever heard of one?"

His smirk grew as he looked up at me over the edge of the parchment. "It's Padma Patil's essay. Cheating again, are we Garcia?"

I rolled my eyes. "Going to take points, Malfoy?"

"No, something better." He took his wand out of his pocket and brought it up to the tip of the parchment. "Incendio."

"No!" I screeched as the tip of the essay caught on fire. I whipped out my wand and, with a quick twist of the wrist, turned Malfoy's ears into octopus tentacles. Although I was trying to go for the summoning charm, I guess that worked too.

Malfoy dropped the essay quickly as he grabbed onto the tentacles, a look of horror crossed his face. Pansy did a high-pitched scream as she jumped back from her boyfriend, not wanting the tentacles to touch her. Crabbe and Goyle just stared, evidently unsure of what to do.

I gathered up the essay and swung my book bag over my shoulder, racing away at top speed before they could figure out I was gone.

Snape better like this essay, I thought as I entered the library, I've gone through way too much hassle for it.


	2. Chapter 2

I bustled out of my dorm; right after putting a charm on my stuff so Pansy couldn't string my underwear throughout the common room again and shot up the stairs that led from the dungeons to the main floor of the castle. I don't know what Salazar Slytherin was thinking, but those dungeons still creep me out and I'm a sixth year.

I ran into Padma a few feet before the doors to the Great Hall, where she laughed at my eccentric appearance. I glared at her playfully. I was trying to get ready this morning while Pansy banged on the bathroom door while hurling un-witty insults at me and trying to shove the tip of her wand under the door for multiple attempts to curse me.

She still was not in the mood of forgiving me for turning her boyfriend into a quarter of an octopus.

The aura of the great hall was very subdued and I felt myself being dragged down by the tired, long faces of the students who were not ready for the weekend to end. That is, until Cormac McLaggen made his presence known and I quickly perked up, hiding behind Padma in an attempt to conceal myself from him.

Cormac and I had a love-hate relationship the year before, mostly where he had an endearing and rather creepy crush on me and I hated him. This so called "relationship" still brought tears of joy to Padma's eyes, because most of the time she thought it was funny to tell Cormac where I was hiding at the particular moment.

He was another person I had been trying to avoid since the beginning of the school year.

"Oh," Padma's eyes widened when she caught sight of him from across the hall, "hiding from your boyfriend again, I see?"

I threw up in my mouth a little. "Merlin, Padma, he's not my boyfriend," I hissed at her as I pulled her toward the end of the Slytherin table, "that is just disgusting. Did I tell you he tried to write me over the summer?" She snorted in amusement. "You would think that after six letters with no replies, he would get the hint. But no, Cormac is a breed all his own."

We watched him in silence as he boomed loudly about going fishing with the minister and announcing for the Holy Harpies over the summer.

"He just doesn't get enough of himself, does he?" Padma asked as she scooped some eggs onto her plate. I grunted in agreement, since my mouth was full of cereal at that point. "He just loves you because of your Spanish charm," she added on with a smirk.

I glared at her for the second time that morning.

"Do you think Cormac's even heard of being humble?" she went on as she poured some milk into her goblet.

"I think we should make a potion for it and pour it into his oatmeal," I tacked on with a grin. I paused, considering the idea for a moment. It wasn't such a bad idea when I thought about it. Really, it would be the best for the student body as a whole.

"Maybe, but I don't eat oatmeal."

Padma jumped so high off the bench that she fell backwards, landing with a small thud on the stone floor of the Great Hall, the milk she had just poured was sent flying onto a group of first years who had the unfortunate luck of sitting at the table behind us. I winced and clenched my fists as the aura of cockiness flooded my part of the table, taking any humility with it as it went.

"Heeeeeey, Cormac," I managed to get out, trying to hold my breath against the stink of his Quidditch robes. Evidently, he had woken up early to get some practice in. It seemed like he knew this too, but still found it overwhelming attractive. His lips were uncomfortably close to my ear, his warm breath crawling over my skin like a million spiders.

So. Gross.

"How was your summer, Natalie?" His voice was like Mrs. Norris running her claws repeatedly down a chalkboard for fun. Everything in my head came to a screeching halt.

Of all the admirers that I could have had, why, oh, WHY did it have to be _Cormac__McLaggen?_

After a few moments of the heavy breathing making me forget how to tie my shoes, let alone how my summer went, I whipped around in my seat (regretting it instantly- the stink that rolled off him was enough to burn my eyebrows off) and poked my finger into his chest.

"Cormac, let me make this perfectly clear to you. If you do not remove your stinky, smelly carcass from my personal bubble in three seconds I will personally remove your DNA from the gene pool. Do I make myself clear?" I glanced down at his man bits pointedly.

He grinned and patted me on the back before saying something about catching up with me after he had taken a shower. I rolled my eyes as he walked away, fresh air swooping down upon us like a knight saving a damsel in distress.

Padma, who had picked herself up of the ground, laughed quietly. "That boy has no shame."

I found myself being dragged throughout the day as if I were attached to a flying dragon with a nasty head cold. Five points off in Transfiguration for not doing my homework (glare from Malfoy). Flicking my wand incorrectly in Charms, causing a zebra to appear in the middle of the classroom (amused snort from Harry Potter and confusing insults from Pansy).

"Did you see Lavender making those goo-goo faces at Ron Weasley?" Padma whispered as we waited outside the Potions classroom. "It was kind of sickening, actually."

I made a noise of agreement, which was enough to satisfy Padma. In reality, I hadn't been paying attention to Lavender and Ron Weasley. My thoughts were far less interested in gossip and drama than Padma's were. She knew everything about anyone, which was actually very impressive when I thought about it.

Professor Slughorn let us enter at last, asking us all to take out our books and turning to page fifty-six as we filed in.

"Erm, Professor," Harry Potter stammered out as he pulled Slughorn to the side, "I don't have my book. Neither does Ron. We were just put into this class today."

Slughorn smiled up at him, explaining quickly for them to grab a book from the storage cabinet at the back of the classroom. Harry and Ron headed back there after dropping their book bags off at any empty table.

I followed Padma to an empty table at the front of the classroom, where she carefully set down her bag and pulled out her Potions book. Once all the seats were filled, Slughorn proceeded to explain that today's lesson would be a contest to who could brew the best Draught of Living Death and the winner would receive a small bottle of Felix Felicis to use whenever they pleased.

That perked Padma right up. She was a Ravenclaw, after all, and any educational contest was right up her ally. I sighed in defeat, knowing there was no chance for me to win the prize, so I slowly pulled out my cauldron and scale set.

By the mid-way point in class, my potion had turned into a complete disaster. Padma, who was currently prodding her potion with her wand ninety-seven times, had the best looking potion of anyone around us. Hermione was hissing quietly at Harry in the background, saying something about cheating out of a book.

"What is THAT supposed to be?" Malfoy taunted as he tipped his head toward my potion, which had just turned a nasty green color. "Did you puke in your cauldron and light it on fire?"

The smoky, haziness of the room dimmed my insult reflexes and I sleepily pointed out that his potion had just turned blue and it was sparking. He whipped back around to it, muttering a string of colorful curse words while trying to add extra ingredients.

Harry Potter, much to everyone's surprise, won that contest.

"I was definitely expecting Hermione on that one," Padma muttered as we passed Slughorn handing Harry the small vial at the end of class, "Do you think she was right in saying he cheated?"

I shrugged. "How can you cheat in potions? Maybe he just threw a bunch of stuff in and just got lucky."

She contemplated this quietly for a moment before branching off to join the few sixth years headed for Arithmancy while I joined the bigger crowd headed for Defense Against the Dark Arts.

I was a few minutes late (Pansy had decided it was a good time to rip the bottom of my bag open with a jinx) and I rushed into Defense, heavy breathing and all, throwing my bag into the nearest empty seat I saw.

"Thank you for gracing us with your presence, Miss Garcia," Snape drawled out as he tapped the board with his wand. Ron, who was a few seats ahead of me, muttered that if he were a Slytherin he wouldn't get points off for coming in late. I decided to ignore his comment, instead pulling my book and a roll of parchment out of my bag.

"Now that everyone is here," Snape stared pointedly at me, "You should all know that the seats you are in now are the seats you will be in for the rest of the year. Get to know your table partner well, as I am NOT changing it because you dim-wits decided to sit by someone you don't care for."

There were many groans of protest and a few gasps in delight. I glanced to my right and saw bright, blond hair. I closed my eyes and shook my head, hoping that it would magically appear to be someone else. I opened my eyes slowly and glanced to my right again.

Draco Malfoy was staring back at me, a sneer plastered on his pale, thin face.

"…lesson based around vampire killings in…" Snape was droning on a few minutes later. I was doodling pictures on my notes of Malfoy being bitten by a vampire, much to my amusement. He stared at the doodle with a nasty glare.

Ten minutes after that, my eyelids were drooping in boredom. Defense Against the Dark Arts happened to be one of my favorite subjects, until Snape started teaching it. Now I sat in class wondering what was going to be for dinner that evening.

"…the first vampire to be discovered by humans was…"

Everyone at school came from different backgrounds and cultures, so you never really knew what was going to be for dinner that night.

"…revolted against…left the magical world in chaos…"

Merlin, I hope it wasn't fish again. Padma just loved the stuff and I couldn't stand the smell of it for more than five seconds. She ate ALL of it the last time we had it. I really wasn't in the mood for glaring faces at me in the common room because no one got to eat dinner.

"…very important…can't afford to pay attention…"

I wondered what Malfoy was going to eat for dinner. He spent most of the time sneering and glaring at everyone; it's a miracle that he doesn't keel over from lack of nutrition.

"…Listening to me? Miss Garcia? MISS GARCIA?"

I jumped up at the sound of my name, shaking the random thoughts out of my mind. I looked up from my doodle to see a lethal-looking Snape staring at me. I blinked, trying to make up a quick excuse about my wandering mind.

"Are you finished drooling on your desk, Miss Garcia?"

I stared at him indignantly. "I was not drooling!" I looked around the classroom, silently hoping that someone would come to my aid.

"I apologize if I was boring you with my monotonous blather about the beginnings of the vampire existence to the muggle world. Next time, I'll juggle some books and do a few cartwheels around the room to keep you from FALLING ASLEEP DURING MY CLASS."

I took a wild guess and thought he wasn't very happy at the moment.

"No, no, no," I amended quickly, trying to kick back in some of the dirt from the giant hole I just dug myself, "you continue doing what you're doing. I was just concentration on the…thingy. It was really fascinating, I assure-" I cut myself off at the sight of his mutinous glare. "Shall I clear my schedule for the fourth Saturday in a row?"

"Make it five," he stated before turning back to the chalkboard.

I groaned inwardly as I slid down the seat, putting the table level with my eyes. Next to me, Draco Malfoy snorted in amusement.

"Shut up or I'll take that snort and shove it up your…"

"MAKE IT SIX."


	3. Chapter 3

I couldn't escape this time. He had me in his sights and there was no longer any way out. I stepped back, an obvious indication of my terror. My self-preservation instincts kicked in at the last possible minute.

"You see, I have this rare skin rash that-"

"If you are not in your seat, next to Draco Malfoy, in five seconds I will pick you up and carry you there myself. And if you even think about running, I will strap you to a plank of wood and prop you up next to your seat."

At my last attempt to preserve what precious life I had left, I began, "But-"

Apparently my five seconds were already up because Professor Snape took a menacing step toward me and suddenly my feet were carrying me back toward my imminent doom that was named Malfoy.

I hate Defense Against the Dark Arts.

That was maybe a bit harsh. I strongly, strongly (strongly) dislike Defense Against the Dark Arts. _Strongly._

As I collapsed back into my seat, Malfoy didn't bother looking up from the piece of parchment he was contemplating, a smirk perched on his lips. "Tried to get the seat changed, didn't you?"

I decided against saying anything. That was probably my best bet. Wouldn't want to say anything to piss off Snape's little pet.

"Maybe next time you should watch where you sit. Then we wouldn't be stuck with each other all year."

I turned and looked at him with the best glare of defiance I could muster. "You know, YOU are the one making this little situation worse. I was, and still am, fully planning on ignoring you for the rest of the year, but YOU keep talking to me. Why don't you turn back to…whatever you were just doing and leave me alone."

With that said, I set my book bag on top of the table, creating a barrier between myself and Malfoy. It was bad enough that I had to listen to him talk in the common room at night, but now I was stuck with him during the day too. Harry Potter shot me a look of sympathy.

Great, now I'm getting looks of sympathy from the boy half the wizarding world wants dead. How fantastic for me.

"Turn your books to page three hundred eighty-five," Snape said as he grabbed a stack of papers off his desk, "This is a group project today. Work, QUIETLY, on this with your table partner. It must be completed and turned in by the end of class. If not, you will have detention." He grinned rather nastily as he sent out the papers to each person.

"Come on, blood traitor," Malfoy muttered as he pulled out his Defense book, "let's get this over with. I have better things to think about."

"And I don't?" I snapped as I pulled a quill out of my bag. "Listen, you do the first half of the assignment and I'll do the second half. We don't have to communicate whatsoever."

"I'd rather not, Garcia," he smirked as he slowly put his book back in his bag, "annoying you seems to be the new highlight of my week."

"Go pick on Potter, he's right over there."

That was almost exactly how our conversation went for the next hour and a half. The idiot's witty comebacks weren't half as bad as they usually are when his girlfriend is around and I found thinking that a sarcastic, meaningless conversation with him was very…self-satisfying. I had exercised my brain for the day on someone who I didn't particularly care if their feelings got hurt.

As he was getting up to leave class, the small piece of parchment that he was making notes on before class started fluttered to the ground. I picked it up, half wanting to yell after him that he had dropped it, but I stopped myself.

He wouldn't do the same for me. He would burn it and then find some other way to completely ruin my day. It didn't look very important anyways, so I pocketed it and went on my way.

Dinner was a far more interesting affair and it pushed the curiosity of the list out of my mind. Evidently it had gotten around that I had been selling…illegal things…around the school for some extra money and the prefects were none too happy about it.

It started as I was placing slices of ham onto my plate a few moments after the food had appeared. I was just getting ready to reach for the potatoes when an angry Hermione Granger walked over to me with an uncomfortable looking Ron Weasley following her.

"Natalie Garcia?"

"That's my name."

Ron was trying to inch away slowly, but was quickly pulled back into the situation by Hermione, much to his dismay.

"We heard a rumor that you were the one selling tickets to first years to see the Sorcerer's Stone."

I widened my eyes innocently for a moment while I finished scooping the potatoes onto my plate. The few Slytherins that were around me sniggered in amusement. Hermione glanced around uncertainly as she shifted from her left foot to her right.

"Why on Earth would someone do something like that?" I replied as I shoveled some food into my mouth. "First years could get seriously hurt that way. I mean, isn't there a…what's down there again?"

Hermione seemed to grow in size. "It is a Devil's Snare plant!"

I nodded in agreement as I pointed at her with my fork. "That's the one! How unfortunate would it be if a first year got tangled up in it? I can imagine that it would get every single first year that went down there."

It was at this point in the conversation that Malfoy decided to saunter over, Crabbe and Goyle in tow. I deliberated getting up and leaving the Great Hall, but I didn't move quickly enough. Malfoy sat down backwards on the bench, both elbows perched on the table.

"Say, Garcia. My two friends here say that you sold them a fake cheat sheet to an Ancient Runes exam."

This was getting ridiculous. I glanced over to Hermione, who had a puzzled look on her face. "But, Crabbe and Goyle aren't in Ancient Runes," she stated in confusion.

The smirk Malfoy had plastered on his face slowly slid off as he realized who was standing next to the table. "I wasn't talking to you, filthy mudblood."

Hermione went pink, stammering out something that no one could understand. The tips of Ron's ears turned red and he looked like he would want nothing better than to sock Malfoy right in the chin.

I turned to him, feeling bad for the two Gryffindors in front of me, and said, "First of all, don't say that to people. It's rude and insulting." I glanced back to Hermione. "Don't mind him. It's been his time of the month for the past six years. I thought he would grow out of it, but obviously not. And to answer your question, yes I sure did sell tickets to the first years to see the Sorcerer's Stone. And no, I won't give the money back."

I looked back at Malfoy, who had snorted at the news of me selling fake tickets. "Malfoy, yes I sold a fake cheat sheet to your friends. No, I will also not give the money back. I would suggest teaching your friends some common sense, because any half-witted baboon would know that I dipped an owl's feet in ink and made it walk across the parchment a couple times."

Satisfied with my response to both situations, I turned back to my dinner only to see that it had vanished, replaced with a few different kinds of puddings and cakes. I glowered at the both of them.

"And now I missed my dinner," I snapped, "hope you're happy."

With that, I swung my book bag out from under the table (Malfoy had to move quickly to keep from being hit) and stomped out of the Great Hall.

Seeing Malfoy reminded me of the list that was burning a hole in my pocket. I chose the nearest alcove to slip into, taking the small, torn up parchment out of my robes as I went.

_Opal Piece- wrapped, don't touch.  
>Hog's Head.<br>2 PM, Hogsmeade Weekend._

My forehead wrinkled in confusion. Malfoy was carrying around a piece of paper with a DATE written on it? Even worse, he had to write down what gift to bring her! I snorted to myself as I stuffed the note into my book bag. What a weirdo. Can't even remember that he has a date.

I started back toward my common room wanting to get back before the sun went down. At that time the dungeon halls were so dimly lit that I have constant nosebleeds from walking into walls and other stationary objects.

"Hey, HEY!"

The voice echoed loudly off the dungeon walls, creating a tunnel of noise. The footsteps from the person picked up once they saw I had stopped walking. I groaned internally. I knew that voice. I had to listen to it all night- boasting about his father and the connections he had, while alluding to some great summer that will eventually lead to some desirable consequences. I had to listen to it during Defense Against the Dark Arts. Now it was seeking me out in a darkened hallway.

Once I thought about it, he was the Slytherin version of Cormac McLaggen.

I turned around, planting my right hand on my hip as I waited for the Prince Himself to catch up.

"Can I help you with something, Malfoy?"

He smirked at me, his face going in and out of the shadows as he passed by newly-lit torches that lined the hallway. He waited to speak until he was three inches in front of my face. "You know what you can do, blood traitor," his smirk grew more into a sneer as he spoke, "give me back the money you stole from Crabbe and Goyle."

"Or what?" I challenged him as I hitched my bag up higher onto my shoulder. "Going to tell your father on me, are you? That seems to be the only solution you ever come up with."

He whipped out his wand from the pocket out of his robes, twirling it around in his hand threateningly as he took a small step closer to me. "You have no right to steal from other students, let alone members of your own house, you stupid mudblood lover, "he hissed, "Granger may be grateful to you for sticking up for her, but I think it's time you learn what house you belong in. Now, give me the money."

I grinned humorlessly, tilting my head as I looked up at Malfoy. I hadn't ever realized how tall he was compared to me. "Afraid I can't," I said shortly, "I spent it already. Bought my mother an opal necklace for her birthday."

Now, I will admit. I have made some pretty stupid decisions in my life. Like the time I thought sledding off the roof into a pile of week-old snow would be a brilliant idea. Not smart. And the time I let Padma challenge me to an ice cream eating contest. Dumb move. And finally the time I stole Professor Umbridge's torture quill and wrote 'bad ass' as many times as I could because the Weasley twins said I didn't have the nerve. Even worse.

But what I slipped into the conversation just then, was possibly the worst decision of my life.

Malfoy's mocking sneer turned quickly into a dark, angry look. He grabbed me by the shoulders, pushing me roughly against the hard, stone wall.

"Get off of me," I snapped as I tried to push him off with all the strength I could muster. He didn't budge. At this point, panic started to set it. For the last five years, we would jinx each other in the hall, send nasty insults to each other, and (every once in awhile) completely ruin a potion that was to be completed by the end of class.

Never had he thrown me against a wall and pinned me there.

"I thought that piece of parchment had mysteriously gone missing after that class," he stated rather calmly, hitching up my panic another notch, "you stole that too, didn't you? Stupid, filth-"

"What's going on down here?"

I guess it was a night for "there is a first for everything's", because never before had I been happy, ecstatic even, to see Professor Snape gliding down the hallway, his black robes billowing out behind him. Malfoy let me go and backed up a few feet as Snape closed in on the two of us.

"Nothing, Professor," Malfoy said in the most polite way he could muster, though I could steal sense the steeliness in his tone, "just settling a mild disagreement."

I nodded quickly as Professor Snape turned his gaze onto me. He studied my face for a moment before turning back to Malfoy, telling him that they needed to speak in his office privately.

As the two men made to leave, Malfoy shot me a dark, glowering look. Obviously this situation wasn't over yet.

I let out the deep breath I had been holding in, rubbing the spot on my back that hit the stone wall as I collapsed to the floor. I'm not sure what happened to Malfoy over the "great summer" he had, but whatever did, turned him into something completely different than I was used to.

I don't know why I even cared. He felt the need to hurl insults at me whenever I walked by. One time in the third year he retied my shoes underneath the Slytherin table, so when I got up I fell flat on my face. But something was off about him this year, something scary.

That thought, accompanied with Malfoy's behavior, set me on a personal mission for the school year. I was going to figure out what happened to him if it's the last thing I did.


	4. Chapter 4

I had been successful the last few days in avoiding Malfoy like the plague. I was particularly impressed with myself and this string of avoidance because we were still forced to sit together in Defense Against the Dark Arts. All he really did was shoot me glowering, angry looks out of the corner of his eye. I ignored those, however, continuing to draw nasty pictures of him being bitten, stabbed, stung, and dismembered by the various dark creatures and curses we were learning about.

Padma was the one who was the most concerned. The day after the "incident-that-must-not-be-named" she inquired why I was walking like I had a stick up my butt. The next day, she commented that I was walking like a pregnant person. After that, it was that I was walking like a pregnant person with a stick up my butt.

I waved off her concerns, telling her that I slipped going down to one of the greenhouses for Herbology and tweaked my back a bit. Three nights after the incident, however, I had a behemoth-sized, black and blue bruise that was tender to the touch and throbbed whenever I moved at all.

I thought his reaction to my comment was a bit drastic, but there was nothing I could do about it then. He still didn't have proof of my having the piece of parchment, though he did try and sneak peeks in my book bag any chance I was opening it.

Saturday, almost ten days after the incident occurred, I was scheduled for my second consecutive detention with Professor Snape. It was a bummer, because the first quidditch game of the season (Hufflepuff vs. Ravenclaw) was that afternoon and I was sure that Snape would keep me over my allotted time.

I jogged down the stairs that led to the girls' dormitory, wanting to get out of the common room as fast as humanly possible.

"Oh, look," I heard Pansy screech from across the room, "it's the grown-up mudblood nerd! She doesn't look any better than she did in these pictures!"

I stopped in my tracks as I looked around the room. Life-sized pictures of me back from the first year (over-sized glasses, bushy hair, and ugly sweaters) littered the room. My fellow Slytherins sniggered at the pictures and Pansy's comments.

I rolled my eyes, not wanting to take her bait. I was already going to be late for detention and, Merlin knew, that I didn't need to have another one added on to the six I had.

"Thanks, Pansy. Jealously is the best flattery," I snapped at her as I wove my way around the jeering, sneering, smirking faces of my housemates.

I stepped out of the common room, shutting the noise out as I slammed the door behind me. Before I had even been able to walk a few steps, the door to the common room swung open again, where I heard more catcalls and whistles from the boys who had just joined the "Bash Natalie Party."

Blaise Zabini stepped out, shutting the door quickly behind him.

"Sorry about them," he shrugged awkwardly as he stuffed his hands into the pockets of his jeans, "Pansy does a lot of crazy things, but I think this one was just downright mean."

I shifted from side to side as he spoke. Blaise Zabini, one of Draco Malfoy's best friends, was apologizing to me for his friend's behavior. It was almost too unreal.

"Thanks, I guess," I lamented as I started to back down the corridor, "I have to get going though. Don't want to be late for detention." I turned to leave, but he grabbed my arm quickly, and pulled me back.

"Wait," he said quietly, "I never get a second alone to myself, with them as friends, and you are usually busy with yours, and I had been wondering for awhile if you had any interest in going to Hogsmeade with me."

I felt a slow blush burn into my cheeks. I was sure I looked ridiculously stupid, because my jaw had dropped open and I sat there gaping like a fish out of water for a moment.

He stepped back from my reaction, trying to take back his explanation, "If you don't want to that's okay," he said quickly, "you just seem like a pretty cool person and I know I'm a pretty cool person and I don't believe that you're half as bad as everyone says you are…"

He trailed off, looking rather miserable.

"No," I finally said, coming to my senses at last, "I mean, yes, I would be more than happy to go with you to Hogsmeade. I…I just needed a minute to process what you said."

No one had ever asked me out before. Ever.

He smiled genuinely and I smiled back, unsure of what to say or think.

"Well, I have to get to…well, you know…I have to go," I managed to stumble out as I started to back away from him again, "I guess…I'll see you later…or something."

As I made my way from the common room to Snape's office, I couldn't help but imagine what that was all about. I had never been asked out before and, to be honest, I didn't even know if that constituted as a date. I mean, I know I wasn't bad looking, but it's not like boys were tripping over themselves to ask me out.

I shook my head of Blaise-consumed thoughts as I hightailed it the rest of the way to Snape's office.

"You are late, Miss Garcia," Snape drawled out as I snuck into his office a few minutes later, deep breathing and clutching my chest.

"With all due respect, sir," I said once I had gotten my breathing under control, "the current circumstances give me a very good reason for being tardy."

"Oh yes?" he sneered as he glared at me from over his newspaper, "and what excuse would that be?"

A fierce blush consumed my face. I hadn't been expecting him to ask what my good excuse was. I sat there gaping at him for a moment, unsure of what to say. I ended up just shaking my head, smiling slightly to myself as I set my bag down onto the hard, stone floor.

"You and Mr. Weasley, here," Snape pointed to Ron, who did a two-finger jerk for a wave, "will be sorting the good dung beetles from the bad ones." He smirked at the horrified look on my face. "Unless you would rather pickle frog brain."

I shook my head quickly, not wanting to give him another reason to change my detention.

"There will be no talking. I'm locking the door and will be back in four hours." I groaned internally. So much for being able to make the quidditch match this afternoon. "Oh, that's right. No magic." He summoned our wands silently. Mine flew out of my bag as Ron's flew out of the back pocket of his jeans.

I glared at the back of Snape's head as he exited the room, locking the door swiftly behind him as he went.

"So what did you end up in here for?" Ron asked as he picked up a single dung beetle with his thumb and pointer finger, clearly disgusted at the bug in front of him.

"It's hard to say," I replied with a smirk, "everything I do gets me a detention around here. What about yourself?"

Ron sent a dark look to another dung beetle as he tossed it into a large jar labeled 'STORAGE.' "Didn't do my Defense Against the Dark Arts essay. Waste of a class that one is."

I giggled as I picked up my first dung beetle, examining it closely. "Ewwww! It's crunchy!" I squealed as I threw it over my shoulder, where it landed upside down on Snape's desk. "I have to agree though. It was definitely better when Lupin was teaching." I looked up in thought for a moment. "You know, Moody wasn't half bad either. Do you think we could get the real Moody to turn Malfoy back into a ferret like the fake one did?"

Ron snorted, obviously thinking that wouldn't have come out of my mouth. "I thought your favorite teacher would have been Umbridge with you being a Slytherin and all." He glanced up from the pile of bugs in front of him to look at me. "And I would have thought Malfoy was your best friend."

It was my turn to snort. "Honestly, where have you been, Weasley? Malfoy treats me almost as badly as he treats your girlfriend."

Ron went pink, muttering something about Hermione not being his girlfriend.

"Either way," I pressed on, "Malfoy and I aren't even on speaking terms."

The rest of the four hour detention seemed to speed by with the conversation Ron and I were having. I was glad, because the amount of dung beetles I had seen for the day made my stomach queasy. We shut up quickly as the lock to the door turned and Snape stalked into the room, an angry Draco Malfoy trailing him.

"See you got yourself a new boyfriend, Garcia," Malfoy smirked at me as he walked by, "This one seems more up your alley. I, for one, don't understand what Blaise sees in you."

I felt my face flush as he sauntered by, replacing the smirk on his face with a stern look as Snape whipped around to face him.

"You two, out," Snape pointed toward the door. I quickly gathered my things, not wanting him to change his mind and make me stay longer than necessary. Ron was already out of the room by the time I stowed my wand back into my book bag.

I was just about to shut the office door behind me when I heard Malfoy hiss, "I don't need your help. You just want to steal all the glory for yourself, but this mission is mine and I will get the credit for it."

Snape muttered something that I couldn't make out, but whatever it was made Malfoy very upset. I heard him stomp toward the office door. I had just hid behind a statue of Emerick the Embarrassed when the door flung open and Malfoy stormed out, with an incredibly angry look on his face.

I sat behind the statue for a moment, my mind racing. What on Earth kind of mission has Malfoy been given? And why is Snape offering help?

After a few minutes, I slipped out from behind the statue and made my way back towards the main floor of the castle. Padma was waiting outside the great hall, playing with her fingers nervously and bouncing back and forth. I sped up to meet her, wanting to know how the game went.

"We won," she burst out happily as she spotted me. That was the great thing about Padma. I didn't have to voice anything for her to know what I wanted to hear. "By a landslide, might I add. Ravenclaw had it in the bag within the first ten minutes of the game. It took awhile for Cho to catch the snitch though." She shook her head. "That girl has gone off the deep end in the past few years."

I snorted in amusement as I hitched my bag over my shoulder. "Can you blame her? First her boyfriend dies and then her second boyfriend is the main reason her first boyfriend is dead. Talk about bad relationship issues."

Padma contemplated this for a moment quietly. Blaise walked by at that moment, winking at me and smiling as he followed Pansy Parkinson and Malfoy into the Great Hall.

Padma wasn't oblivious to the world, much like I'd hoped, because she caught the wink and smile, her jaw dropping in awe as she looked back at me.

"He winked at you. Blaise Zabini winked at you. Are you going to tell me about this winking? Were you going to tell me where this winking originated?"

I sighed before explaining that he had asked me to accompany him to Hogsmeade, which resulted in a squeal of excitement from Padma.

"You're going right? You have to go! You just have to." She spread her arms out wide, looking up to the ceiling in thanks. "I finally get to live my love life vicariously through someone. My needs will finally be met, thank Merlin."

I slapped her playfully in the stomach, causing her to recoil in surprise. "I'm not shagging him!" I exclaimed as I started into the Great Hall. "We're just going to Hogsmeade. Big difference there."

"You are shagging him YET."

I hit her playfully again.


	5. Chapter 5

**Well, I decided to put a few chapters up before writing an Author's Note and I think that chapter 5 is a good place to do that! Thank you so much to the people who have been reading and reviewing my story. It's been a fun thing to write the past few weeks and it's only getting started!**

**Review after reading! Let me know what you think!**

**Xo-ohsnapxitsemyy**

"Stupid Potter," Malfoy grumbled in front of me, "Dumbledore's little pet. What I wouldn't give just to-" He made a rather violent motion of his hands, one that caught even myself off guard. Pansy started to pat his arm rather lovingly, which made Malfoy recoil with a look of disgust on his face.

I chuckled quietly, not wanting to draw the attention to myself, but it was too late. Pansy had already heard me. She whipped around, drawing her wand out as she did so. I stopped dead in my tracks, ready to hex her into oblivion at a moment's notice.

"You don't know what you're getting yourself into mudblood lover," she drawled out slowly as she rose her wand to chest-height, "I would keep those nasty, little laughs to yourself if I were you."

"Good thing I'm not you, then," I responded as I gripped my wand tighter, thinking quickly of a spell that would knock her socks off.

Unluckily, and surprisingly, Malfoy stepped between us, lowering Pansy's wand arm with his hand as he did so. He sneered at me before turning to her and telling her that I wasn't worth the time or the trouble. "She's no good," he finished as he turned away.

For some reason that comment stung and I saw that Blaise was flicking his gaze between my wand tip and Draco's back.

"Come on, Draco," Blaise said quietly as he took a step out from behind Malfoy, shielding him from my wand range. "That was kind of harsh, don't you think? She didn't even really do anything."

Malfoy narrowed his eyes. "Go on, then. Stick up for the blood traitor. But when this current situation pans out the way I want it to, you will be sorry you chose the wrong side." He stalked off, half-dragging Pansy by the arm as he went.

Blaise let out a deep breath as he turned to look at me. I smiled slightly at him. No one had ever stuck up for me before and I wasn't quite sure what to say. 'Thank you' didn't really seem like enough, but jumping him in the middle of the hallway seemed a big much.

I ended up muttering a quiet, awkward 'thank you' as I shuffled my feet on the stone floor. Blaise placed my chin between his forefinger and thumb. "No one deserves to be treated like that," he said quietly as he looked intently into my eyes. I looked down quickly. His intense stare was too much for me to handle.

After a moment or two of silence, I cleared my throat loudly, trying to bring some noise back into the conversation.

Blaise dropped his hand to his side, wiping his palm on his pant leg as he went. I could tell he was trying to do it inconspicuously, but I caught on.

"Well, I have to get going…erm…to l-lunch," I managed to stutter out as I pointed down the hallway. Blaise nodded, obviously at a loss for what to say at that point. I skirted around him, making sure that I didn't look back at him as I went, even though I could feel his stare on my back.

I let out a long, deep breath as I rounded the corner and saw Padma waiting outside the Great Hall for me like usual. Her forehead wrinkled in confusion at the look on my face and I whispered to her what had just happened in the hallway and what Blaise had done to stick up for me.

Padma let out an involuntary squeal of approval, which I shushed since her squeal had attracted a few students to glance our way. "I knew I would like him," she whispered once she had gotten a hold of herself, "he never really seemed like the Slytherin type to me."

"One, again, he's not my boyfriend. We've had exactly two conversations. And secondly, what is the Slytherin type?" I inquired playfully. She hit my arm lightly before growling "Malfoy" as she jerked her head over to the other side of the Great Hall.

I glanced over in time to see Malfoy narrow his eyes at me in a glare that he usually only reserved for Harry Potter. I knew that I was in trouble at that point and even Padma commented on how deeply he seemed to resent me.

"Do you think that he has any emotions besides resent and anger?" she continued as she grabbed a cheese sandwich and slapped it on her plate. "At least, those are the only emotions I ever see from him."

I shrugged, following her lead and grabbing a sandwich, as I glanced over to Malfoy. He was trying to dislodge Pansy from his arm, grabbing his book bag as he did so. She glanced up at him with hurt in her eyes; something that I was surprised existed in her.

"They may be somewhere deep, deep, deep, DEEP down inside him," I finally replied after Malfoy exited the Great Hall, "but if they are there, I think they've been shoved in a dark, dusty storage closet in the back under a pile of boxes containing his laugh and quite possibly his heart, frozen solid in case he needs to use them in the distant future."

"I don't know where you come up with this stuff," Padma giggled before taking a bite of her sandwich.

"Hey, it's a real gift, buddy. Don't knock it."

The sunlight swiftly turned into nightfall as I made my way back to the common room after a long homework session with Padma and her fellow housemate, Terry Boot. I liked Terry, he was a nice guy, but he really amped up the intensity when it came to studying.

He and Padma got along great and I sensed a small crush coming out of each of them, which is why I dipped out an hour before we were supposed to be back in our common rooms.

I whispered the password (pureblood) and the wall covering the common room slid open, revealing the dark room with dimly-lit torches lining the wall opposite me. The place was uninviting to me, which is why I spent as little time in it as possible.

I strode through the room quickly, ignoring the jeers and inappropriate catcalls from my fellow housemates, and took the stairs two at a time until I reached my dorm room. Millicent Bulstrode and Pansy Parkinson were whispering gleefully at each other as I entered, at which point they stopped suddenly, glaring at me from Pansy's bed.

Pansy took out her wand and shut the curtains to her bed without saying a word to me, which I found somewhat unnerving. Sighing quietly, I pulled a pair of sweat pants and a tank top out of my dresser. I climbed into bed, pulled out my wand and uttered a few incantations blocking my bed from the rest of the room so the girls couldn't draw fake moustaches on me again, and fell into a deep sleep before my head hit the pillow.

There was a sudden tapping on the window, which caused me to wake with a start a few hours later. I turned toward the window and saw a nasty-looking grindylow attach its mouth to the glass and try to scream. All it managed to do was blow bubbles and fog up the glass. I snorted as it shot me a look of indignation and swam away.

The one cool thing about the Slytherin dormitories were that half of them were underwater, my room included. Pansy snored deeply; I turned my head away from the window and listened for whispering. All was quiet in the sixth-year dorms.

I sighed quietly, knowing that I wouldn't be able to get back to sleep. The clock on the wall read two o'clock in the morning. I had class early in the morning and I knew that I wasn't going to be able to sleep through the day.

Despite this, I swung my legs over the side of my bed and straightened out my sweatpants as I stood up. The girls were all still breathing deeply, so I grabbed my wand and headed down to the common room.

All was quiet down there as well. The fire had been put out, as did half of the torches that lined the wall. I crept over to the door and swung it open, lighting my wand quietly.

The hallway leading up to the main floor was silent and it echoed every footstep I took traitorously, as if it were working with Filch. I peeked my head around a corner before legging it up the main staircase that led to a network of other staircases.

I was surprised that no one passed me, not even a ghost. It was a good night for a walk, I thought to myself as I entered the Astronomy tower.

It was a crystal-clear night. The crescent moon that hovered above looked crisp and clean against the black cloth of the sky, sprinkled with stars and constellations. The autumn chill in the air was enough to keep my nerves on end, but it was a comfortable sting. The smell that wafted in with the breeze was earthy and I breathed in deeply, taking in the mossy-tree scent of the forest.

"What the hell are you doing up here?"

I closed my eyes as a flood of frustration entered my body. _Remember__the__earthy__scent,__remember__the__pretty__stars__…__remember__the__earthy__scent,__remember__the__pretty__stars__…_

"What can I do for you, Malfoy?" I replied politely as I looked over my shoulder at him. It seemed that he had just gotten out of bed too, because his hair was disheveled in an attractive way and his sweatpants were riding low on his hips.

"I want to know why a mudblood lo-"

"Please," I cut him off as I raised my hand as if to stop his words, "Not here."

Malfoy went quiet for a moment, obviously not knowing what to do or say next. I had always engaged in an argument with him, so I'm sure this just threw him right off track.

A few moments of silence later, I glanced behind me once more to see that he was shuffling his feet awkwardly with his hands clasped behind his back.

I sighed, squaring my shoulders to face him. We contemplated each other for a moment, unsure of what the other was thinking of saying or doing.

"Can I ask you something?"

"You just did," he smirked, ruffling his hair slightly. I rolled my eyes.

"Why do you hate me so much?"

Whatever Malfoy thought I was going to say, it evidently wasn't that. An awkward silence fell between us for a moment as he stared at me in disbelief.

"Maybe I don't get what you mean," he finally said slowly as he edged toward me. I stepped back until my shoulders hit the stone wall. I perched my hands on the windowsill.

"You know what I mean, Malfoy. You have been nothing but mean to me for the past five years and I don't understand why."

He was silent for another minute and I took that as he wasn't going to answer me. I sighed and muttered a quick 'never mind' before walking toward the door.

"Wait," he grabbed my arm and spun me back around, "just wait a second. First year, on the stairs while we were waiting for McGonagall to let us file into the Great Hall…I told Potter that I would be willing to help him out when it comes to friends at Hogwarts."

"Yeah, I remember," I replied as I pulled my arm out of his grasp. His fingers slid down my arm as I pulled it out, sending tingling sensations where he touched.

"You laughed."

I pinched my eyebrows at him. "You…have made my life miserable for the past five years…because I laughed at you?"

He scoffed at me, a sneer returning to his face, "You're being a little overdramatic. I did not make your life miserable."

"In first year, you hexed my teeth so they rotted out right as I was talking to a third year I really liked."

"So…"

"In third year you tied my shoelaces together under the table so I fell on my face when I tried to stand up."

"Those are ju-"

"In fourth year, at the Yule Ball, you told my date that I had escaped from St. Mungo's and they were currently looking for me because of untreated Multiple Personality Disorder."

"That was kind of funny."

"And then you jinxed me so I spoke all my thoughts out loud for the entire night." As I finished, I cocked an eyebrow and crossed my arms over my chest. "So you're telling me that I deserved all those horrible things, because I laughed at you?"

The sneer slid of his face, replaced by a completely serious tone. "No, I did all those things because you made my ears grow to the size of dinner plates, planted fake love notes in my bag from Millicent Bulstrode, and locked me in a room with Potter while taking bets on who would come out alive."

We glowered at each other for a moment, too wrapped up in our thoughts of why the other person started all the arguments and fights between us.

"But on the subject of me hating you," he said slowly as he rocked back and forth on his heels, "no, I don't hate you. I've never hated you."

It was my turn to be taken aback. "I'm sorry, but can you repeat that?"

"I don't hate you," Malfoy smirked, "but that doesn't necessarily mean I like you either. You did jinx my toenails once to grow at an abnormally fast rate."

I suppressed a giggle, figuring it wasn't the time to reminisce on old memories. He smirked at the look on my face, relaxing his stance so it wasn't so defensive.

"I should probably get back to bed," I said as I looked up at him, "You know, have to get up early for classes tomorrow."

"Yeah," he agreed awkwardly as he ruffled his hair again, "me too."

As I pulled the door open, he called my name one last time. I turned around, expecting him to give me a sneer or a smart remark about my choice of outfit, but instead he said, "Do you hate me?"

I smiled as I shook my head. "No, Malfoy, I don't hate you."

As I shut the door behind me, I couldn't help but notice the small smile that played on his lips.


	6. Chapter 6

**Wow! Everyone has been overwhelming amazing about my new story! Thank you so much for the reviews, favorite story adds, story alerts, etc. It really makes it much easier for me to sit down and continue the series!**

**As always, read and review…you know you want to ;)**

September turned into October faster than I could think, bringing with it massive amounts of homework from professors who all thought their subject was the most important.

"I thought this was supposed to be a blow off year," I grumbled angrily to Padma one day in the library. We were writing an essay on the effects of the polyjuice potion, as well as trying to research the many different uses for the Vanishing charm. Ever since the incident in the bathroom where I stole her essay to copy it, she had been very protective about homework assignments she handed to me.

"It's the year before NEWTS," she answered back happily. I scowled at her. She was the only person I knew who's good mood would increase with the amount of homework she acquired. I was not that kind of person, nor did I think I would ever be. "There is absolutely no time to mess around."

I sighed loudly, looking around the library for some other form of distraction. A few Hufflepuff seventh years were mingling around a table together. Two second years, who I was pretty sure were in Slytherin, skirted nervously around the restricted section. Draco Malfoy was staring intensely at me from across a stack of Pansy's book.

Wait…Draco Malfoy was staring intensely at me from across a stack of Pansy's books. I looked down at the parchment in front of me. My name was written in the right hand corner and the title of the essay was printed at the top. That's as far as I had gotten in the last hour and a half.

I glanced back up at Malfoy's table to see that he was still staring at me. He jerked his head slightly as he stood up, indicating for me to follow him. I mumbled to Padma something about using the bathroom as I grabbed my wand out of my bag.

"Why do you need your wand to use the bathroom?" she whispered back harshly, narrowing her eyes at me.

"You never know who you'll meet in the bathroom around here," I whispered back, "Remember first year when Harry Potter met that mountain troll?"

She shrugged her shoulder, a look of thought flashed across her face. I made my way through the library before she could bring up another point.

I followed behind Malfoy for a ways, making sure that no one caught on to the fact that I was doing so. He sauntered back into the stacks of the library, where books that screamed profanities at you were located, so no one really went back there.

"ALCHEMY IS A WASTE OF A SUBJECT!" a book screamed as I walked by it. I jumped and quickly turned on it, silencing it with a spell so Madam Pince wouldn't come bustling back to see what the fuss was about.

Malfoy was leaned against the back corner of the library, his foot propped up onto the wall. A smirk was plastered across his face and I couldn't help but notice how good looking he was.

"I just wanted to make sure that you didn't tell anyone about our little meeting in the astronomy tower," he said quietly, "Don't want people to get the wrong idea around here."

I rolled my eyes. "Don't be ridiculous. I wouldn't tell anyone I voluntarily talked to you." His smirk turned into a sneer at this remark. "Besides, it's not like we were doing it on the windowsill."

The smirk returned to his face, followed by a flash of something naughty in his eyes.

"Ew, gross," I responded to the naughty look, "that would be the last thing on this entire planet that I would do."

Malfoy cocked an eyebrow, his smirk growing.

"Not saying that, in general, is the last thing on the planet that I would do," I retracted quickly, "because trust me, I've done it before. Many people say that they would do it with me again if they had the chance. I'm that good."

His smirk kept on growing.

"Not saying that I've done it with a lot of people!" I said shrilly, waving my hands madly as if trying to wave away the smirk on his face, "I haven't really done it with that many people to be honest with you. I've just done it many times with a few people, who have all said I was good."

His smirk turned into a small grin.

"Gah! No! Not saying I've done it that many times! And they were all separate occasions, not together! And there was a substantial amount of time between each occasion!"

"Maybe you should just stop while you're already behind," Malfoy chuckled. I let my hands fall to my sides.

"All I'm trying to say is that you are the last person on this planet that I would do it with."

"So you've thought about doing it with me?"

I turned and walked away very quickly, a blush erupting on my face. I just told Malfoy about my sex life. I told Draco Malfoy about my sex life. No, I didn't tell him. I spewed my sex life to Draco Malfoy.

"You do realize that you just told me your sex life, right?" Malfoy had somehow managed to catch up with me. It probably had something to do with the fact that he was about a foot taller than me.

"Yes, I fully realize that I did that." I turned to look at him, pushing him up against a bookshelf. "But if you tell anyone that I word vomited that to you, your life will consist of lying in a hospital bed with the brain of a piece of broccoli."

He smirked again as he raised his hands up in surrender. "I understand, but don't you think this is a bit fast? I thought we agreed on taking it slow."

I realized how close I was to him. His breath tickled my forehead and when I inhaled, I could smell his sharp cologne filling my nostrils. I quickly removed my hand from his chest, trying to shake the feeling of his quidditch-scuplted muscles off my palm. "You, sir, are a pervert." I sent him another glowering look before heading back toward Padma.

I groaned internally as I saw who had taken up residence at our table while I was gone. Cormac McLaggen had invaded our space, spreading his homework out across the table. I narrowed my eyes at Padma, who grinned and smacked Cormac on the arm before pointing at me.

Stupid, evil bitch. There was no way to get out of it now. I plastered a fake smile on my face as I made my way back to the table.

"Cormac," I said sweetly as I sat down in my seat, "how nice of you to join us."

McLaggen placed a sweaty palm on top of my hand and it took everything in me to not snatch it back. "Padma here was telling me that you had to run to the ladies' room and you would come back shortly. It's been a long time since I've seen you, almost felt like you've been ignoring me."

"Imagine that," I said shortly, my tone dripping in sarcasm. Padma had to bend down to her book bag to stifle a giggle that was on the verge of escaping.

"Whenever I felt that way, though, I remembered who I was exactly. No woman would ever be able to resist the charm of the McLaggen."

I almost threw up in my mouth. At this point, Padma had to turn her laugh into a large, hacking cough to cover it up.

"Would you like a cough drop?" I glared at Padma as she got a hold of herself. She shook her head quickly, tears of joy coming into her eyes. I turned back to look at Cormac, cocking my head to the side as I did so.

"How did the quidditch tryouts go?" I knew how they went, as a wicked rumor about Hermione confounding Cormac at the tryouts spread like wildfire throughout the houses. I almost thank her in the hallway every chance I see her.

A dark look spread over his face. "The tryouts were bogus. Potter obviously only picked Weasley because…"

It was at this point I started to ignore him. Get McLaggen on a quidditch rant and you would only have to pretend to listen, as all his rants were the same. I glanced over to Malfoy's table, only to see that he glanced at mine at the same time.

Our eyes connected and he smirked quietly at me, nodding in the direction of Cormac. I rolled my eyes, shaking my head slightly so Padma and McLaggen wouldn't notice. He winked at me before returning back to his homework, causing an eruption of butterflies in my stomach.

I glanced in confusion down at my stomach, as if it would give me an answer.

"-Natalie? Are you listening to me?"

I broke out of my thoughts, looking up at Cormac, who was staring at me intensely from across the table. "No, I'm not."

"I was just saying that the first Hogsmeade trip was this weekend and I was wondering if you were willing to go with me. I couldn't imagine why you wouldn't want to though." He winked at me in a way that wasn't anything like Malfoy's. This wink made me shrink back in revulsion.

"Sorry, Cormac, already have a date. Should have asked sooner," I said quite happily.

"Ah, I knew that would happen if I didn't act fast enough. Well, there are plenty of Slug Club gatherings that I would be more than happy to take you to."

At this point, Padma couldn't help the snort of laughter. Luckily, McLaggen didn't seem to catch on. "I'm sorry, you said what?" she asked in amusement, finally putting down her quill to listen to his explanation.

"Slug Club. Professor Slughorn invites all the well-connected students of the school to have dinner with him once a week. You see, my father and the Minister of Magic go way back…"

I had to tell McLaggen at least three more times that I already had a date to Hogsmeade for the weekend and he seemed oddly perplexed that I wasn't accepting his invitation. Whenever he brought up the Slug Club, I quickly changed the subject, not wanting him to get back on the topic of how well he knew all the top personnel at the ministry.

"Oh, won't you look at the time." I checked my watch dramatically. "I have detention with Snape in ten minutes. I should really get going. Wouldn't want to be late, you know." I picked my book bag off the floor. "But I just know that Padma would LOVE to hear that story about you and the minister going fishing again. She always tells me how fascinating it is to her."

I power-walked quickly away from the table as Padma opened her mouth in shock. That's what she got for inviting him over in the first place!

I took my time getting to Snape's office. Now that I was away from McLaggen, I wasn't particularly thrilled about having detention tonight. I thought of so many other things that I would rather be doing, including being strangled by the giant squid.

I made my way into the office about five minutes late, despite having left the library with ample time to make it there five minutes early. Snape just sneered at me and pointed at any empty desk in front of him.

"You will be reorganizing my personal storage closet, rewriting labels and throwing out old ingredients. Without magic. I expect it to be done by the time I get back. You have four hours."

I handed over my wand hesitantly and Snape snatched it before I could change my mind. He was out of the room with a swish of his robes.

I sighed. Doing this detention was better than the alternative…talking to Cormac McLaggen…so I just sucked it up and went on my way. I made my way slowly but surely over to the storage closet, where bat wings, dead flies, and rat brains were shoved in jars.

"So gross," I muttered to myself as I picked up a jar of unknown substances and set it on the floor. This was by far the worst punishment, with the sorting dung beetles being a close second, because I had a very weak stomach. I did not enjoy seeing anything floating, pickled, shoved or dried in jars and put into a storage closet for later use.

"Garcia."

I gasped loudly out of fright and spun around, dropping the jar in my hand as I went. Malfoy was sitting on one of the desks, his legs dangling over the side. I glared at him.

"Thanks, Blond Boy Wonder! Look what you made me do!" I pointed toward the broken jar on the floor, beetle eyes tumbling out of it. "And what the hell are you doing in here? Are you following me now?"

Malfoy sneered at me as he pulled out his wand and cleaned up the mess that covered the stone floor. I looked at him in surprise as the last of the beetle eyes flew back into the jar.

"Thanks," I said slowly, my eyebrows pinching together in the middle. "Why did you just do that?"

He shrugged. "It was my fault the jar ended up on the floor. Obviously you are deaf and didn't hear me come in the door."

"I am not deaf," I muttered indignantly. "And why did you come in the door in the first place? And why did you admit that me dropping the jar was your fault? And why-"

"Shut up, Garcia," he sighed as he jumped off the desk, making his way toward me. "I just wanted to finish the conversation from the library."

I turned away to pick up the jar, my face beet red. I had forgotten about the sex conversation with Malfoy in light of McLaggen stalking me for the last hour.

"So Natalie Garcia has thought about doing it with me. How…refreshing."

I was organizing jars in the closet with my back turned to him, but I could almost hear the smirk that was probably plastered on his face. "You are very much mistaken, Malfoy. I have not thought about doing it with you, nor will I ever think about doing it with you. Take it up with Pansy, she's probably incredibly willing."

"Been there, done that."

"You are disgusting," I reprimanded him. "I've heard that you've already slept your way through my dormitory, excluding me, the fifth year dormitory, and the seventh year dormitory. Don't you know when to stop?"

Draco smirked again as he leaned against the door frame of the storage closet. "Maybe the one person that I haven't slept with yet is like a challenge to me."

I wrinkled my nose, not sure if it was at his comment or the pickled pig's feet I found. "I don't believe the rumors that you've slept with all those people. There is NO WAY that many people are stupid and if there are…I'm getting the hell out of Britain."

I looked over my shoulder to see him running his fingers through his blonde hair.

"You don't believe a lot of things people say," he finally said as he crossed his arms again, staring intensely down at me.

"Well, I just know people," I said, moving a box out of my way so I could reach the corner of the closet, "and I know that you, in particular, just love to make things up to make yourself look better." I turned on my heels to look up at him. "And that is incredibly narcissistic of you."

He glowered at me, but with his lack of something to say, I knew that he knew that I was right. I sighed and returned to the storage closet, trying to think of something else to say.

"You are the only person that will tell me the truth when I ask for it." He wasn't surprised when he said it.

"Well, that's what you get when you talk to me," I looked up at him again from my crouched position near the bottom shelves. "I don't usually sugarcoat things."

He seemed as if he were contemplating saying something else, but at that moment Snape decided to make a grand (three hours early) entrance back into his office.

"What are you doing here, Mr. Malfoy?" Snape asked suspiciously. "I told you I would be in the teacher's lounge if you needed something."

"I just forgot, _sir,__"_ Malfoy said, with his tone dripping in sarcasm. I would have gotten a month's worth of detention for that, but Snape just scowled at him.

"Leave, Garcia," Snape snapped at me from his deak, "Draco and I have things to discuss."

I grabbed my book bag and wand before he could change his mind, glancing back at Malfoy as I did so. He was glancing at me from the corner of his eye, obviously not wanting Snape to notice. I sped out of the dungeon office, the door snapping shut behind me as I went.


	7. Chapter 7

Blaise and I had decided to meet in the Great Hall at 1:30 for our first Hogsmeade trip together. I tried to convince myself not to go, because I knew it was going to be an incredibly awkward afternoon. Padma, however, had different plans for me. She made me borrow an outfit, a pair of shoes, and even a matching purse.

"A matching purse?" I gaped at her as she handed it over to me. "Are you serious?"

Padma rolled her eyes as she shoved the bag into my hands. "Just take it, you big baby," she teased me, "it's just a purse."

I eyed it as if it could blow up at any minute. "Matching purses just are not my thing," I added on hastily as I tried to give it back, but she was not having it.

"This is the most exciting date of my life," she hissed at me threateningly, "and if you ruin it for me, I will ruin you."

I nodded quickly; shocked that she was so intense about a date that she wasn't even going on. She smiled sweetly at my silent response before pointing out that it was 1:15 and that I should probably make my way down to the Great Hall.

I scurried away from her, not bothering to look back. She probably had some gawky jewelry for me to put on and that would have been the end of the road for me.

Blaise stood outside the hall, fidgeting nervously with the edge of his black jacket. I smiled to myself. Thank Merlin I wasn't the only one anxious for this date. I made my way over to him, weaving through the large crowd of students trying to fight their way past Filch.

He grinned when he saw me approach, dropping the edge of his jacket as he did so.

"I was thinking that you had decided not to come," he said as we took our spot in the long line of students. "You look really nice, by the way."

"I thought about it and thank you," I said playfully. We were silent for another moment as the line moved forward. I couldn't think of what to say. Did he like quidditch? No, I didn't know enough about quidditch to carry on a conversation. What about school subjects? I grimaced internally. That would be a romantic topic to pursue.

An awkward silence fell between us as we waited for Filch to check our names on the list. It was too late for me to turn back when Filch let us both through the front doors. The leaves on the trees were turning bright shades of red, orange, and yellow. They rustled in the breeze. Some fell from the trees and spun to the ground.

"So, Malfoy was kind of making fun of me after I asked you," Blaise said a few minutes later. The castle was fading in the distance behind us as we made our way through the trail toward Hogsmeade. "I guess you both have had a rocky relationship the past few years."

I jumped at the chance to start a conversation with him...but why was the conversation leading to Malfoy? He had been everywhere in my life the past few weeks and I was starting to get tired of it. I took the bait anyways.

"Yeah, Malfoy and I have definitely had our differences," I laughed. The sign that welcomed us to Hogsmeade Village appeared just around the corner. I sighed in relief, grateful that we could find something to do instead of talk.

"I remember in fourth year you dumped a pot of color changing ink onto his head after chasing the rabbit he was supposed to turn into a hat out of the Transfiguration classroom." I glanced up at him to see that he was smiling down playfully at me.

I grinned at the old memory. "Well, that's only because the week before he charmed my potions book to give me the directions in reverse order, resulting in an explosion and failing potion grade for that day."

Blaise laughed. I was slightly surprised how warm and inviting it was. I didn't think any Slytherin besides myself was capable of anything except a sneer.

"How about we make our way to the Three Broomsticks? The wind is kicking up and I'm sure Madam Rosmerta has some butterbeers that we could take for the road."

I agreed, silently thanking him for reading my mind. The sharp, fall wind was starting to bite my fingers. I regretted not grabbing a scarf or pair of gloves on my way out of the dormitories this morning.

Blaise opened up the door to the pub, gesturing for me to go in first. I grabbed a table as he made his way to the bar.

"Katie! Where did you get that?" A shrill voice hissed behind me. I glanced over my shoulder to see two seventh year girls engaged in what seemed to be an argument.

"It's nothing," the other girl replied, almost robotically, "just something I have to deliver."

I turned away from their conversation to see Blaise heading toward me, a to-go cup of butterbeer in each hand. I smiled at his generosity. "Thanks!" I said to him as he handed me one of the cups. I brought it to my lips, enjoying the warm steam rolling out of the lid.

The two girls who had been bickering a minute ago were headed out of the pub. I noticed that the taller of the two, the one holding the package, was Katie Bell. She had been playing on the Gryffindor quidditch team for as long as I had been going to Hogwarts.

I turned back to Blaise, who had lifted the cup of hot liquid to his mouth and was taking small sips.

"Well, did you want to head to Zonko's or Honeyduke's?" I suggested as I hopped off a bar stool that was positioned next to the table I had reserved. He agreed with me quickly. He took my hand and led me out of the now-crowded pub as more and more students filed in, trying to get away from the cold.

We had just started to head down the main street, where most of the stores were located, when I heard a bone-chilling scream erupt from behind me. Blaise and I looked at each other with startled expressions on our faces and we whipped around to look down the long, narrow road.

My eyes landed on a large figure, floating in the air as if attached to puppet strings. She fell to the ground hard, a sickening thud issued through the now-quiet street.

Harry Potter rushed over to Katie, sliding by her now hysterical friend as he went. Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger looked onto the scene in shock.

"I'm going to get help!" Harry yelled as he took off down the lane, returning a few short minutes later with Hagrid.

The gamekeeper didn't say anything to the four students standing around Katie, but scooped her up into his strong arms, jogging back up to the castle as the others stared on after him.

"Wow," I heard Blaise mutter as he let go of my hand, "that was about the strangest thing I ever saw."

The door to The Three Broomsticks opened with a ding. I glanced to my left to see Pansy Parkinson slip through it, apparently in a very bitter mood. She sent Blaise a short, but meaningful, look before taking the road that led back up to the castle.

Blaise obviously didn't notice that I noticed Parkinson's meaningful expression to him, but I didn't mention it either way.

The rest of the afternoon went quite strangely and I was very anxious to get back up to the castle to debrief the Katie Bell incident with Padma. Blaise and I made our way through the small shops. He ended up buying me a fake wand from Zonko's along with a box of dungbombs.

"I can use these to torture Malfoy with," I grinned at Blaise as we left the shop. He just sent me a humorless smile. I faltered after that, making a quick excuse to get back up to the castle. He shrugged and left me standing in the middle of the street.

I thought his behavior after the Katie Bell incident was very strange indeed, but I didn't want to push it. I slowly made my way up to the castle, knowing that Padma and a few of her Ravenclaw friends hadn't quite made it back from the small village yet.

The few hours until dinner started seemed to fly by. I walked up the stairs from the Slytherin common room toward the Great Hall, where Padma was nervously waiting by the large double doors. I hustled over to her, wanting to hear her side of the Katie Bell situation.

"Oh, thank Merlin," she sighed quickly as she pulled me off to the side, "I want to hear about your entire afternoon." She grimaced. "That sounds very bad considering what happened to Katie. The rumors are spreading like wildfire around here."

"Have you heard anything?" I whispered to her as we snuck into a small alcove off the main hallway.

Her eyes sparkled with tears. "It was just awful," she started as she sniffed loudly, trying to get a hold of herself. "I was with Parvati and Lavender in that q-quill shop when we heard the s-scream. We rushed out af-after that to see what had happened." She paused and took a deep breath. "Parvati and Lavender were friends with K-Katie Bell and they were v-very upset when they saw it was her that had s-screamed. Once H-Harry had taken the th-thing that Katie was c-carrying off the ground, th-they left to go back to sch-school."

I rubbed her arm consolingly, as by this point she was getting incredibly upset.

"We started talking to L-Leanne, the girl that was wi-with Katie. Evidently, s-she said that Katie came out of the b-bathroom with this p-package and she t-tried to get K-Katie to take it back. Anyways, L-Leanne tried to g-grab the package when they left the p-pub, but it ripped and Katie b-bent down to grab it. The m-moment she t-touched it, s-she went berserk!"

I wrinkled my brow in confusion. "She just touched the package? But, she was carrying it the whole time. How did it not get her before then?"

Padma shook her head quickly. "N-No, the package r-ripped. S-she touched what was in-inside it."

"Do you know what was inside it?"

She shrugged one shoulder. "L-Leanne said it looked like an o-opal necklace, b-but she wasn't q-quite sure."

I felt my heart stutter in my chest. "You said an opal necklace?"

Padma nodded, confused at my sudden realization. "Yeah, but like I s-said, Leanna wasn't sure if that's r-really what it was. W-why?"

My mind wandered back to the note Draco had written himself. It was probably at the bottom of my book bag, forgotten until now. I summarized Malfoy's note to Padma, whose eyes were wide by the time I finished.

"So you think that Malfoy gave Katie the necklace?" she asked, the stuttering now gone from her speech. "You think they had a date or something and he gave her the necklace, not knowing it was cursed?"

I shrugged my shoulders, leaning against the stone wall that enclosed the alcove. "It is pretty fishy to me, at least. Malfoy writes himself a note about some opal piece and after Katie is thrown six feet in the air, an opal necklace just so happens to be found inside a package she was carrying."

Padma shook her head quickly, obviously not wanting to hear it. "I think you are very imaginative, Nat. But, for one, Katie has a boyfriend. I heard her and Parvati talking about it last week, so I highly doubt she was on a date with Malfoy. For two, Malfoy had detention with Professor McGonagall today. She gave it to him earlier this week after he forgot to do his homework."

"Maybe he came to Hogsmeade after the detention was over-," I rushed in, but her head shake cut me off.

"He was still in detention when I left the school at two. There was no way he could have left detention, met with Katie without Leanne knowing, gave her the necklace, and cursed her within the twenty minutes it all happened."

I must have looked crestfallen, because Padma returned the favor by rubbing my arm soothingly.

"Look, I can tell that something else is upsetting you. Why don't we just grab some food and sit on the stairs to talk?"

I agreed quickly, wanting to get the Blaise situation off my chest. She ran into the Great Hall for a few minutes, coming back out with two steaming plates of roast chicken, mashed potatoes, and green beans. I followed her over to an inconspicuous staircase that was right near the alcove we had been talking in previously.

"So tell me," she said finally as we had settled in, making sure not to sit on the vanishing step, "What happened?"

I spilled it to her like a faucet with constant running water. I told her how awkward the date was because we had only had two conversations previously, how all we really talked about was Malfoy, how weird his behavior had turned once the Katie Bell situation happened.

She listened with undivided attention, making inappropriate comments about Blaise at all the right parts.

"And now I have no idea what the hell is going on, because he just stormed off down the street after I told him that I had to get back to the castle," I finished in a very whiney voice that sounded very much unlike my own.

"Well," Padma said slowly, obviously unsure of what to say at that point, "I'll just have to kill him then."

I snorted into my mashed potatoes. That was the last thing I had expected her to say. She leaned over and bumped me with her shoulder.

"Hey, things will look up from here. It was only one date, after all. Seems like you're the only person in Slytherin that isn't a complete prick."

"I completely resent that, Patil."

We whipped around to see Draco Malfoy coming down the staircase that we were currently sitting on. I couldn't help but notice that he looked quite different on the weekends. Jeans and a long sleeve black shirt in place of black robes and the Slytherin tie.

"Garcia, I have to talk to you a minute."

I rolled my eyes at Padma, who had started to stand up from her position on the stairs. She wasn't as willing to stand up to the Slytherin Prince as I was. After she had walked away, he took her place sitting next to me on the staircase.

"You were in Hogsmeade today," Malfoy began quietly, "Maybe you can tell me what happened."

I looked over at him. His face was a mere foot from mine. His leg lightly brushed mine as he shifted; causing light tingles to rush where he touched. My heart rate started to race.

"It doesn't even matter," I said slowly, "it was crazy scary and very creepy, but just another day at Hogwarts I guess you could say."

He looked at me for a moment, but I kept my eyes on the empty plate in front of me.

"I thought we were friends, Garcia," he said finally as he perched his arms on the stair directly behind him, "I thought we could tell each other everything."

I let out a short, hollow laugh. "You thought we were friends? Merlin, that is the best joke I have heard all year."

Malfoy didn't smirk or sneer, his face stayed completely neutral. The smile slid off my face quickly. "Geeze, you were serious, weren't you?"

He leaned forward, placing his elbows on his knees. "I can come to you for any type of advice and you'll tell me anything, even if I don't want to hear it. Isn't that what friends do?"

I gaped at him for a moment, surprised that we were even having this conversation. "Ummm…yes and no. Friends do that, but friends also don't spread nasty rumors and insult each other at every waking moment of the day. Besides, don't you have your own friends?"

"I have Crabbe, Goyle, and Pansy. All three who do whatever I ask them to, whenever I ask them to." He smirked. "That's the kind of relationship I like to have with people." He looked back over to me. "But that isn't the case with you."

I stood up from my position on the stairs, swinging Padma's matching purse over my shoulder as I did so.

"Malfoy, I have one friend in this entire school, so maybe asking my advice isn't the way you should go. But if it's friendship you are looking for and you consider friendship ordering people around, then I'm definitely not interested."

He grabbed my hand as I started to walk down the stairs, sending shivers up my spine. "Wait, but I just said that isn't the kind of relationship I want with you."

I narrowed my eyes. "Maybe you should reevaluate and check back later, because as of right now, all the nasty, insulting things you have done in the past five years are playing over and over in my mind."

I had walked down the rest of the staircase before he had spoken up again. I turned back to look at him, only to see him sitting in the same position I had left him in.

"Just, don't go out with Blaise again. Even if he asks you," he said quietly as he got up from the stairs and walked back up them.


	8. Chapter 8

**Wow! Again, everyone thanks so much for all the great feedback!  
>It really makes me feel awesome that so many people like my story.<br>Here is part 8 and I hope you enjoy it!  
>Please, review at the end per usual!<strong>

The two weeks leading up to the second quidditch match of the season (Slytherin vs. Gryffindor) was an intense one. With one of Gryffindor's seekers in the hospital, I wasn't sure what was going to happen at the game. Emotions ran high and more people than usual got jinxed in the hallways due to the hostility.

Unfortunately, Cormac McLaggen had been dubbed Katie's replacement and it took everything in me to not beat him with his own broomstick the day before the game. He sauntered into the Great Hall, making sure to make his way over to me as I was eating breakfast.

"So, Natalie," he said as he gave the biggest, most charming smile he could muster, "did you want to wear my quidditch practice shirt in support of my first official game this season?"

I glared at him, not in the best of moods. "I would rather be strangled by a Venomous Tentacula and be beaten by the Whomping Willow at the same time."

McLaggen laughed whole-heartedly, saying that my sense of humor was too much for him sometimes, as he got up and strutted back over to the Gryffindor table. I glared at his back, wishing for nothing more than the opportunity to jinx him into the next century.

"Garcia! Hey, Garcia!" someone shouted from down the table. I glanced down to see who it was, only to shoot another glare toward Malfoy when I realized it was him.

He had been working incredibly hard over the past week to prove his friendship to me. I had to admit, I was being a bit hard on him considering Padma and I do nothing but insult each other and argue. It was fun having the Blonde Boy Wonder under my control though.

Of course, it was only when other people weren't around. But still. That counted.

"Are you going to wear your boyfriend's shirt to the game tomorrow?" he smirked at me as he piled some eggs onto his plate. "He seemed real convinced that you are going to."

"Shove off, Malfoy," I hissed at him, grabbing my book bag to head to class. "I'll wear his shirt when pigs learn how to fly."

Malfoy's smirk grew as I left the table, but I noticed it fell slightly when Pansy, Blaise, and the two goons joined him. Blaise didn't even bother to look my way, just as he had been doing the past week. I bit my lip as a quick insult jumped to the tip of my tongue and turned away, making sure that I didn't say anything I would regret later that night.

I was just about to leg it up the main staircase when Professor McGonagall came hurrying toward me. She explained that she had forgotten to book a student to do the announcing for the quidditch game tomorrow and was wondering if I was interested in doing it.

I gaped at her for a moment, unsure of what to say. Sure, I knew a little bit about quiddich. Just the basics, however, and I wasn't sure if I would be able to get through an entire match without sounding like an idiot.

At that moment, Snape decided to walk on by and overheard McGonagall asking me to commentate.

"I think Neville Longbottom would be a better pick," he drawled as he passed, not even bothering to stop walking. I glared at his back and, in a moment of defiance, agreed to do the commentary for the quidditch game tomorrow.

"You would be the very LAST person I would have chosen to announce," Draco smirked at me in Defense Against the Dark Arts that afternoon, "and I do mean the very last. Creepy Creevy would have been before you."

I sneered at him. "Friends are supposed to be supportive, Malfoy."

"And I'm sure that a good friend would tell you that you are making a very bad decision," he said quickly, as Ron Weasley had just walked into the room and he wanted to belt out another rendition of Weasley is our King before class officially started.

I rolled my eyes at him immaturity, pulling out the book of quidditch I had borrowed from the library that morning. Draco's eyes widened at the sight of it, his jaw dropped in disbelief.

"You are announcing for the biggest rivalry game of the school year and you have to read a book about said game before you do so?" He snorted in amusement. "Listen, after my practice tonight, meet me in the library. Merlin knows I will not let you go down as the worst commentator in Hogwarts history."

"That is probably the sweetest thing you have ever said to me," I cooed at him playfully before turning the page and continuing my read.

He sneered at me again, but this time didn't say anything. Snape had just entered the classroom, effectively cutting off all conversations by doing so.

I did take Malfoy up on his offer, though, and met him at nine thirty in the back corner of the library. He was still in his practice gear, broom slung over his shoulder as he sauntered toward me, winking at two fourth year girls on the way.

I rolled my eyes, storing away the quidditch book so he wouldn't pick on me again. He sat down at the table and pulled a roll of parchment and a quill from my bag.

"Take notes," he commanded as he leaned back in the chair, crossing both feet and placing them on the table in relaxation.

"Mmmm…did Draco Malfoy forget already about how important manners were to a so-called friendship?" I quipped as I picked up the quill and dipped it in ink.

"Come off it, Garcia. I've sucked up to you enough this week that will last the rest of my life. What you see is what you get."

I smirked as I looked up at him. His blonde hair was disheveled in an attractive manner, obviously windblown from quidditch practice. Luckily for me, unlike McLaggen, he didn't seem to smell that bad after a two hour practice. He was across the table, however, and my weak stomach wouldn't allow me to get any closer to find out.

"So, begin with this quidditch thing."

Malfoy stared at me, once again, in disbelief. "I think the first place we need to start is by you knowing to never call it a 'quidditch thing.' Always refer to it as 'the best game ever invented by man.'"

I contemplated this for a moment, before disagreeing and saying that I liked my own explanation better. "Besides, I'm going to be announcing, not you."

He shook his head, most likely because he realized how right I was, and continued. "So tell me what you know so far about quidditch. Lay it on me."

"Well," I began as I set the quill down on the table, "I know there is a snitch caught by the keeper. No! No, the seeker, sorry. And the beaters hit the qudgers to try and kill people. And the chasers try to score the bauffle, which is ten points each time."

I beamed at him, very impressed with myself. His mouth was slightly open and the muscles on his forehead had gone slack. I leaned back in my chair. "That's not right, is it?"

He shook his head very slowly as he muttered, "qudgers and bauffles?"

"Hmmm…maybe you should explain it to me then. I think the book was lying."

I think you should tell McGonagall to find someone else, because there is no hope for you. At all," he grumbled as he pulled my book bag toward him, "and let me see this damn book." He pulled out the book, examining it for a moment before a smirk appeared on his face.

"You do realize this book isn't even in English, right?"

I wrinkled my forehead in thought. "Maybe that's why I was having such a hard time with it."

He pulled over my blank piece of parchment and snatched the quill out of my hand. He jotted down a few notes, me trying to look over his hand as he wrote.

"Read this and study it. All night."

I looked over the piece of parchment. "Quaffles for chasers, snitch for seeker, bludgers for beaters. Ten points every time you score and the keeper protects the goal posts."

"That's what I wrote."

"I was just repeating, you jerk." I shook my head. "I'm going to have to bring this with me. Hopefully I won't need it half way through."

Malfoy got up from the table, shouldering his broom again. "Bring it with you, pin it to your forehead. I don't really care. Just don't screw up the game."

I sneered at him as he smirked. "Whatever. You'll be playing. Shouldn't be listening to me anyways."

His smirk grew as he started to walk away from the table. "I'll be listening. Potter isn't that big of a competition."

I rolled my eyes again, going back to the notes he jotted down in hopes of memorizing them.

I ended up falling asleep in the library last night, waking up only to Madam Pince charming the non-English quidditch book to hit me over the head. I stole the book from mid air, sitting on it quickly so it couldn't move.

The librarian narrowed her eyes as me before shooing me out of the library, banning me from entering for the rest of the weekend.

"I don't even think she can do that," I grumbled to Padma in the great hall before shoving a piece of toast in my mouth.

Padma snorted into her oatmeal. "I'm pretty sure she can. She is the hawk of that library. Seems like you'll be doing homework in your own common room now."

I scowled. "Or in the Chamber of Secrets next to that dead, giant snake. Because I would rather do my homework there."

Padma smiled for a moment, before her face fell very quickly. "I just want you to know, I did not put this together. He is doing this all on his own."

I looked at her in confusion, before doing a double-take over my shoulder. Cormac McLaggen was headed toward the Ravenclaw table, a Gryffindor quidditch shirt clutched in his right hand.

"Oh Merlin," I hissed as I whipped back to her, placing both of my hands on each side of my head, "what the hell is he doing? Didn't I tell him yesterday that I would absolutely not wear his shirt for the game today?"

"Shhh….here he comes," Padma said as she slid down on the bench a little bit.

"Natalie Garcia, you are one hard person for me to track down," McLaggen laughed and pointed at me as he swung one leg over the bench, straddling it before sitting down. "I brought you that shirt you asked for."

I gagged a little bit. "The shirt that I asked for? You are the one that asked me to wear it today! And yesterday, I said the answer was no. Absolutely not. In fact, I said I would rather be strangled by-"

"Yes, the Venomous Tentacula. Yadda, yadda, yadda," he cut me off with a very irritating smile. "I brought you the shirt anyways. I know how tired you were yesterday. Obviously not in your right mind."

He tried to shove the shirt into my hands, but I quickly took out my wand and set it on fire.

"Hey!" he yelped as he threw it on the ground and stamped it with his foot to put out the flames.

"Whoops," I offered up sarcastically as I stood up from the table, "my hand must have slipped." I skirted by him quickly and hurried out of the hall before Cormac could pick up the shirt and catch up with me.

Once out on the grounds, I took a deep breath of the sharp, cool air. It was evident that winter was on its way in. The fall breeze was replaced by a tingling cold. The leaves had already fallen off the trees and they covered the ground like an orange blanket.

The quidditch pitch came into view; both teams could be seen from a distance warming up. I realized exactly what I was getting into and my heart rate quickened quite rapidly. What the hell did I agree to? I didn't know anything about quidditch!

"Are you on your way down?"

I jumped slightly, whipping around to see who had snuck up on me.

"Sorry," Blaise smiled slightly, "didn't mean to scare you. I heard through the grapevine that you were slated to announce the game today. Wanted to wish you good luck."

I narrowed my eyes at him, crossing my arms across my chest as I did so. "You haven't talked to me in a week," I commented quite harshly.

He had the decency to look sheepish. "I know and I'm sorry about that. I was just-" He paused for a moment, searching for words- "I was really looking forward to our date and the whole Katie Bell thing completely through it off. I was hoping to make it up to you."

I opened my mouth to answer, but before I could get a word out another voice had cut me off.

"Garcia! Get to the pitch! The game is going to start in twenty minutes!"

I looked around, not realizing that I had been standing there looking at the scenery for so long that the students had started to stream out of the school, heading toward the quidditch pitch to get good seats.

"I'll talk to you later," I mumbled to Blaise as I followed a couple of third years down the steep hill that led to the pitch.

As I entered the stands in the teacher's section, I saw McGonagall had saved a seat right next to her for me. I figured after having Lee Jordan for an announcer all those years, she couldn't be too careful anymore.

I pulled out my cheat sheet as I sat down and I saw McGonagall eye in warily, probably thinking that Snape had the right idea of asking Longbottom before me. My heart seemed to beat faster as I turned on the megaphone, my palms sweating as my nerves amped up my adrenaline.

"Now, you're sure about this," I heard McGonagall whisper to me in the background. I turned to give her a reassuring smile.

"Can't really back out now," I said as I adjusted the mouth piece. "Let's just get this over with."

The game was about midway through and the crowd was getting rowdier as the game got dirtier. Goyle almost unseated Ginny Weasley with a bludger while Crabbe "accidently" dropped his bat onto McLaggen as he tried to fly underneath him.

That one made me smile.

"And another penalty shot given to McLaggen for the real sportsmanship that Crabbe is displaying out there," I said into the mouth piece. I heard cheers from the Gryffindor side erupt when McLaggen got past the keeper, mixed with boos from the Slytherin side.

Pansy Parkinson was conducting another chorus of Weasley is our King. I could see Ron's face redden as the students belted out the song. I felt quite bad for him, thinking it wasn't fair for the students to harass him like that.

"Really glad that I'm apart of such a classy house," I said into the mike, pointedly looking at Pansy, "can't imagine a better song to sing on this fine, October afternoon. It really didn't get old at all the first hundred times I heard it this past week."

Pansy shot me a glare, cutting off her chorus-leading as Gryffindor roared in laughter. Ron shot me a quick smile of relief before turning back to the game.

"And it looks like McLaggen is at it again. Can't keep his hands to himself."

Cormac had just taken the bat from one of the Gryffindor beaters. It looked like he was trying to teach him how to properly swing it mid-game.

"Annnnd that doesn't look like it's making captain Harry Potter too happy."

Harry had started yelling at Cormac for the fourth time that game. I glanced over at Malfoy to see him roaring with laughter at the sight. With all the heckling he was doing, it was evident that he didn't see Potter lock his eyes on the snitch before racing after it at top speed.

"Looks like this game might finally be over," I said in a wishful tone. I was really over this whole announcing thing. That comment earned me boos from all sides of the stadium. "At least you all agree on something!"

Harry had just closed his fingers around the small, golden ball and Gryffindor erupted in cheers and chants. Luna Lovegood's giant lion head roared loudly, frightening a few first years directly in front of her.

I couldn't hear what he was saying over the noise, but Malfoy seemed to be heckling Potter about something. Harry just smirked as he held up the tiny ball between his forefinger and thumb, obviously showing off.

Draco glowered at him before flying back to the ground, not bothering to meet up with his team as he fled the stadium.

"Well, ladies and gentlemen, you know what they say. Save a broomstick, ride a wizard," I said as my final statement with a wink. McGonagall yanked the megaphone away from me, ordering another detention for me as catcalls, whistles and laughter spread throughout the stands.

I had finally made my way back to the ground level of the teacher's stands after being pulled aside for a talking to from Snape. I earned a double detention on top of the detention I got from McGongall for my little comment at the end of the game.

I couldn't help but look around for Dumbledore, who sent me a smile and an amused wink. I grinned back at him, hoping that he would talk Snape into taking away my newest detentions.

"Nat!" I heard someone call for me from the crowd. I peeked around the students, before my eyes set on Blaise, who was leaning against one of the wooden posts. I weaved my way through the crowd, making my way over to him.

"You didn't get a chance to answer my question," Blaise smiled as he pushed himself off the post and walked toward me, "about me making it up to you."

I could feel a flirty attitude radiating off him, and I couldn't help me pick some of it up. "Well, I didn't get the chance to. Plus, you didn't give me much of an option."

He tucked a lock of hair back behind my ear. "Come to Slughorn's Christmas party with me," he said as he took another step closer. His closeness seemed to numb my body. I felt like I couldn't move, couldn't think.

"I…I think I can d-do that," I managed to stumble out.

"Good," he smirked knowingly before wrapping his arms around my waist. "And this is for me storming off and ruining our first date."

He pushed his lips onto mine. I was in shock for a moment, not sure of what to do. They were warm and soft against mine, but the butterfly feeling I expected wasn't there. I kissed back, placing my hands on his chest and leaning my hips into his, hoping that would trigger it.

But, nothing happened. I felt like I was kissing a complete stranger.

As we parted, he smiled down at me, tucking another loose lock of hair behind my ear. I smiled slightly at him too before glancing over his shoulder, only to see a bewildered Draco Malfoy staring at us with a mix of shock and anger on his face.


	9. Chapter 9

**Can I just say: I have the BEST readers in the entire fanfiction world?  
>You continually make me feel great and, for that, I award you with Chapter 9 of the series!<br>Read and review, send me a personal message with your thoughts, whatever :)**

Fall quickly turned into winter as a blanket of white snow covered the grounds from top to bottom. I reveled in it, loving the way the castle sparkled in the sun, reflecting every which way as though thousands of tiny mirrors were positioned under the snow. I was slumped in the corner of the common room (Madam Pince had, yet again, banned me from the library after I knocked over a book shelf) gazing wistfully out of the window into the lake, which had began to freeze.

Tiny fish and different magical creatures huddled within the seaweed, shooting me indignant looks as I looked on from the warmth of the castle.

"Ooooh, Draco," I heard Pansy giggle from the couch across from the fireplace, "you're so bad. You shouldn't talk like that." Her flirty, toeing on horny, tone made me gag in disgust. He muttered something else to her, causing her to squeal in pleasure once again.

I slammed my book shut, stuffing it into my book bag forcefully. He glanced over his shoulder at me smirking as he ran his fingers up and down Pansy's side.

He had been in a very bad mood with me ever since Blaise and I kissed. He decided that directing his attention toward Pansy was the past way to get revenge, but I didn't really care, which seemed to make him even madder.

As I walked behind him to leave the common room, I saw out of the corner of my eye that he had begun to disentangle himself from Parkinson, leaving her sprawled on the couch with a pout on her face.

"I thought I told you not to accept Blaise's date offerings anymore," he growled at me as soon as the common room door slid shut. "I specifically told you-"

"I am not a dog, Malfoy," I snapped back as I spun around to look at him, "you cannot tell me what to do and expect me to obey it."

"You aren't a dog, but you're certainly acting like a bitch!"

I narrowed my eyes at him, unwilling to show the slight sting of hurt I felt at that comment. "I'm being the bitch? That's crass of you considering you're the one throwing a hissy fit at the thought of me going to Slughorn's party with Blaise." I hitched my bag higher onto my shoulder. "And, if you wanted to know, Blaise and I have barely even talked since we kissed so it's not like he's my new best friend."

Malfoy's stance became defensive as soon as he realized that I was readying myself for a fight. "I can only imagine why. Probably the only thing interesting about you is in the sack."

I instinctively slapped him across the face. Hard. "And I thought you were becoming a pretty okay friend," I hissed at him as I turned to stomp away. His jaw was hanging open, probably because of the shocking slap I had just laid across him.

I huffed my way angrily through the rest of the dungeons, storming up the stairs, and into the great hall where I threw myself into a seat next to Padma and her current crush Terry Boot.

"Uh oh," Padma commented as she looked over at me, "what's happening now?"

"Malfoy's happening now. He's just the biggest jerk."

"Surprise, surprise," she said dryly, "although I'm not sure why you're so astonished, he's always been kind of a jerk to you."

I opened my mouth to say something, but stopped myself short. I had forgotten for a moment that I hadn't explained the odd relationship that Malfoy and I had. She probably would have gotten angry and I definitely didn't want to upset the only best friend I had.

"You just have to get back at him the best way you know how," she grinned at me, her eyes sparkling rebelliously. I smirked back at her, an idea already swirling around in my head. Her grin fell quickly. "I think your day is about to get worse…again."

I snapped my head up to see McLaggen sauntering over to the Ravenclaw table, shooting looks of flirtation at other girls as he went. I was pleased to see that the other girls either looked at him with faces of disgust or didn't bother looking at all.

"So, Natalie," he grinned as he leaned onto the table with one arm, placing the other roughly on my shoulder in a sort of affectionate pat that made my stomach curl. "I was thinking…about the Christmas party-"

"Cormac!" I cut him off loudly, causing many heads to swivel in our direction. "If you ask me one more time, I'm going to get the meanest, nastiest hippogriff I can find to gouge out your eyes while a blast-ended skwert dismembers you. And I mean it!"

The dangerous look on my face must have said it all, because a flash of panic went across his eyes.

"Now, if you would so kindly leave me alone. I don't want to go to any party, dance, rendezvous, outing, etcetera with you," I let out a deep breath as I finished. The look of disappointment on his face actually made me feel extremely bad for being so harsh with him. I sighed. "Look, I've heard through the grapevine that Hermione Granger is really on the outs with Ron Weasley right now. Something about Ron starting to date Lavender after the quidditch game."

Cormac looked at me in confusion, his nose wrinkling slightly, "Hermione Granger? But she's-"

"She's hot," Padma threw in as she quickly caught on to what I was trying to do, "she's so hot and there are a lot of guys, especially in Ravenclaw, that have wanted to ask her out. Isn't that right, Terry?"

Terry, who obviously wasn't paying attention, started to shake his head, but with a swift kick under the table from Padma, he quickly changed his mind. "Yeah, McLaggen, everyone wants her," he said rather insincerely. It seemed to do the job though.

I smiled humorlessly up at Cormac as an expression of thought crossed his face.

"You should really try for it," I said as I gave him a slight, but not subtle, shove toward the Gryffindor table, where Hermione had just sat down across from Harry Potter.

That seemed to put the pep back in his step, for he spun around in a way he probably thought was cool and sauntered back toward his own house's table, waiting for the perfect moment to talk to her.

I sighed deeply, hoping that was going to be the last time I heard from him. Ever.

"Well that certainly does it," Padma said as she swung her book bag over her shoulder. "Are you coming to transfiguration today? Or are you going to play sick again?"

The last two transfiguration classes I had accidently slept through because Pansy thought it was a good idea to reset my alarm for an hour and a half after I was supposed to be up.

"Eh, I'm up. Might as well make my way over there with you."

She hooked her arm through mine, half dragging me to the classroom as she went. I had a feeling she was doing this because she thought I really wouldn't show up.

The doors to the room hadn't opened up yet and everyone was lined up down the hallway. I glanced over to Malfoy in a way that I thought was low-key, only to find him staring at me. I quickly looked away.

The classroom door swung open and everyone began to file in. Padma continued her half-dragging, as she probably thought I would make a getaway while everyone wasn't looking.

"Nice of you to join us again, Miss Garcia," McGonagall said as she peered sternly over the top of her glasses at me. I didn't say anything to her, mostly because she was really the only teacher in the school that scared the living daylights out of me.

"Today we will be working on conjuring spells," McGonagall began as soon as everyone had found their seat. I instantly stopped listening, having other more important things on my mind.

After a few moments, a felt a nudge from Padma and I jerked out of my thoughts, looking up to see every head in the classroom swiveled toward me. McGonagall was staring at me intensely.

"Would you like to answer the next question to the homework assignment?"

I glanced over to Padma, who was pointedly staring at her textbook. I was definitely on my own. I internally chastised myself for sending balls of ink at the back of Pansy's head last night instead of doing my homework when I had the chance.

"I…er…I" Wasn't paying attention? Couldn't care less? Were those cat whiskers I saw under her nose? All of those were very valid questions that would have worked, but I highly doubt she would have appreciated any of them.

Meanwhile, McGonagall was at the front of the classroom sending me 'I'm your professor and I know you didn't do your homework' glares. I was definitely going to get the talking-to of a lifetime, accompanied by a week's worth of detention.

I was just about to confess everything, when I heard someone whisper a sharp, but quiet, "356 BC."

"Erm, is it 356 BC?" I winced as I said it, expecting her to fly off the handle at my incorrect answer. Instead, to my great relief, she frowned and glanced behind me for a moment before congratulating me on my correct answer. She returned to her lecture on the history of conjuring spells, which I had instantly started to zone out of again.

I looked over my shoulder, surprised to see Malfoy seated directly behind me. He smirked inconspicuously, not even bothering to look at me while he did so.

"You didn't have to do that," I muttered to him as soon as class let out. I was walking quickly behind him, trying to stay at least two steps away to keep people from getting suspicious. He veered off down a dimly lit hallway, which was in the opposite direction of the charms classroom we were supposed to be headed to.

I waited a moment, lurching back and forth as I decided whether to follow him or not. I continued to wrestle internally, but my curiosity got the best of me and I skirted my way through the crowd and into the empty corridor.

It only took a minute for me to run headlong into him. I noticed we weren't too far from the entrance of the hallway, but far enough where people wouldn't notice us back there.

"Look," he began as he ran his hand over his blonde head, "I just wanted to say that-"

"Wait," I cut him off gleefully, "Are you apologizing? Can I get this recorded? Or on paper?" I stuck my hand into my bag, shuffling it around until I found a roll of parchment.

"I'm not apologizing," he said shortly and I withdrew my hand from my bag in disappointment. He ran his hand over his head again. "Look, I'm not going to say sorry for what I said, because I'm right. You've been on your high hippogriff ever since you and Blaise kissed…"

"What are you talking about?" I cut him off again. He threw me a glowering look.

"Will you just let me finish?" he hissed as he pulled me deeper into the corridor, as the main hallway had begun to fill with students headed toward Transfiguation. "I'm not going to apologize, but I just wanted to say that you need to break it off with Blaise."

I stared at him, stunned for a moment as I pulled my arm out of his grasp. Tingles shot up my arm for the first time since the fall when he last had a hold of my arm. "Why do you say that? Blaise is perfectly nice to me. He's been a good friend, unlike you," I shot back rather snottily.

He snorted. "You and Blaise have barely talked. All I'm trying to tell you is that you need to end whatever you two have going on. Trust me when I say, it will be for the best."

I scoffed at him as I took a step back. "It's for the best? You need to give me a better reason than-" I stopped short for a moment, realization hitting me like a ton of bricks, "You're jealous."

It was his turn to look stunned for a moment. "Excuse me?"

"You're jealous!" I pointed at him accusingly. "You have been nothing but bitter and angry with the world since you saw me and Blaise kiss. You are totally jealous."

A flash of anger crossed his face and before I knew it, for the second time that year, he had me by the shoulders and pinned up against the wall.

"You listen and you listen good," he said threateningly, his face mere inches from mine, "I am not jealous and those thoughts need to exit that little brain of yours immediately. I have put up with your snarky comments, the glares, and everything else the last few days. But it ends now. I have more important things to attend to than following you around and trying to figure out what the hell is going on inside your head. I tried being a good friend, but you proved too stubborn to even bother listening to me."

I shoved him as hard as I could, but he barely even moved. "You didn't try to be a good friend," I whispered harshly, "you tried to control me. But I am not Pansy or the two goons that follow you around. I make my own decisions and my decision is to go to that stupid party with Blaise. And being a good friend means supporting the decisions that I make."

He released my shoulders, taking a step back from me in anger. I could tell by the look on his face that he was biting back some pretty insulting comments.

"And what do you mean you have more important things to attend to?" I continued on after a moment of silence had passed. "You mean shagging Pansy? Because that is just-"

"Enough!" he yelled at me and I instinctively shut up. I knew I had pushed him too far this time. "Enough."

I stared at him for a moment as he stared back at me. "What happened to you over the summer?" I asked quietly. "Last year, around this time, you would have already dyed my hair green and charmed a banana peel to chase me around the school. You haven't done anything like that so far."

He scoffed at me. "Maybe I finally learned to grow up. You should do the same. Immaturity only goes so far." He turned to leave, but my anger at his comment had built up once again.

"I know that necklace was yours," I shot at his back. I watched as he turned around slowly, a murderous look planted on his face. "I know that you cursed Katie Bell."

He smirked dangerously, walking slowly toward me as he did. "And how do you know that?" he finally said as he reached me, placing both hands above my head on the wall, so I was trapped.

"I…I just know," I stammered out nervously, "between the note and everything. I saw Pansy coming out of the Three Broomsticks just a few minutes after it happened." He stared down at me for a moment before I spoke again. "What have you gotten yourself into?"

"It's none of your business," he hissed at me, "and you better keep that little nose of yours where it belongs." His finger touched the tip of my nose briefly, almost gently, and a wild heat spread across my face.

He continued to stare down at me for a minute, a different look in his eye than he had a moment ago. I could have been imaging things, but his head started to move slowly toward mine closing the gap between our lips. He stopped suddenly and, very reluctantly, pulled himself up and hitched his book bag back onto his shoulder.

"I'll see you in charms," he muttered before booking it out of the corridor and into the now-empty main hall.

I stared after him, even after he had turned the corner and vanished, wondering what in the world had just happened.


	10. Chapter 10

**Here is chapter 10!  
>Just so you know, I'm going out of town until 1121 so there may or may not be any updates until Monday.  
>Read and review!<br>Thanks for being awesome!**

I was thanking Merlin that the first half of the term was officially over, but with that came the Slughorn Christmas party and I had been dreading it since my encounter with Malfoy in the empty corridor that day. Padma told me to just gracefully back out by saying my mom wanted me home early or I needed to finish an essay, something like that.

But the days quickly turned into weeks and I found that I had become a chicken when it came to dates. I never cancelled on Blaise and once I hit the 'week until the party' mark, I had missed my opportunity to back out gracefully.

Instead, I wrote my older sister, Vanessa, and begged her to let me borrow a dress. She sent one two days later (a strapless, dark blue number that had sequins across the top) with a rather snarky note telling me to not spill anything on it and that she wanted it back as soon as I got home from school.

The afternoon of the party, I met with Padma in one of the girl's bathrooms on the fourth floor. Her arms were loaded with makeup, hair supplies, and accessories when she barged in the door, scaring me to pieces.

"What the hell is all that for?" I asked, astounded as she dumped it into a dry sink. "Are you moving into the bathroom? I don't think all of that is necessary!"

She shot me a look of disbelief. "You're going to a formal party. Remember the Yule Ball?"

My mind flashed back to frilly dresses and Padma getting me ready for three hours straight. My heart started to race in terror and it must have shown on my face, because she started to laugh. "I'm not going to be that long. Besides, we don't have that much time." She pulled her wand out of her back pocket. "And I'm much better with this now."

I looked at the wand uncertainly, but Padma didn't notice. She sat me down on a stool she had conjured, pulling half of my dark hair and piling it on top of my head.

"Couldn't you have put a cushion on this thing?" I asked as I squirmed to get more comfortable on the wooden seat. "I think I sat on a splinter."

"Oh shut up and stop complaining."

I felt like I had sat there for hours, and I probably had, because by the time she had finished with me the sun had gone down and I could hear the distant chinking of glass dishes on the wooden tables along with murmured voices of students and staff.

"Okay," she said gleefully as she stood up straight, stretching her back quickly as she did so. "Go change into your dress, but don't look in the mirror yet!"

I obliged her, more so to make her happy, and grabbed the dress from its hanging places on a stall door of one of the bathrooms. I quickly pulled off my leggings, tank top, and zip up sweat shirt and shimmied into the knee-high dress. I zipped it up as much as I could in the back, zipping the rest up with my wand when I could no longer reach. I stepped into the silver-glitter four inch heels that Padma had brought and opened the door to the stall.

Padma gasped in delight, ushering me quickly over to the mirror.

"Geesh, Padma, there is no need to cry. I see you every-"

I stopped as I took a look in the mirror. Whoever Padma had replaced me with was standing opposite me in the mirror. Her dark hair had been curled into big ringlets that were pinned softly to the back of her head, giving it a half up, half down appearance. The dark blue makeup brought out her eyes and Padma had somehow matched a blush perfectly to her already-tan skin complexion.

"You look beautiful!" Padma squealed as she swiveled me around so she could take a better look. I tripped over my own feet slightly. "You're going to need to learn to walk in those. Very fast."

I tripped and stumbled my way toward the potion master's party, where Blaise was waiting for me just outside the entrance.

"You look beautiful!" he exclaimed as he took my hand. "Let's get inside. I want to show you off now."

I smiled at his comments, but I was slightly put out when the butterfly feeling I had been expecting didn't show up. Nevertheless, I took a deep breath and plunged into the Slughorn Christmas Party.

The look of Slughorn's office was rather stunning, for he had transformed his space into a vast tent-looking room with golden, emerald, and crimson drapes slung across the ceiling. Some of the drapes covered the stone walls, daintily grazing the floor as they moved with the breeze. Large golden lanterns with deep crimson patterns decorated the room, casting an orange-ish glow on the crowd.

"Wow," I whispered more to myself than anything as I followed Blaise through the crowd, almost running straight over a rather small house elf. He grinned back at me, skirting around a group of older pipe-smoking wizards. I brushed the smoke out of my face with my free hand, coughing slightly as it drifted back into my vicinity.

"Slughorn really knows how to throw a party," Blaise murmured as he put his hand on the small of my back, summoning over a rather tall, lanky boy with a tray full of flutes. I had no idea what was inside them, but I took one from Blaise, thanking him politely as I did.

"Neville? What are you doing here?" I finally said as realization hit me. The tall, lanky boy carrying the tray was Neville Longbottom and I had barely even recognized him. Blaise shot me a look of disgust for talking to the guy, but I ignored it.

Neville shrugged, an unhappy look on his face. "This was the only way I could get an invite," he said before turning around to dip back into the crowd. I felt really bad for him. He always seemed to get the raw end of the deal.

"What's happened to you?" I overheard Harry ask Hermione, who was casting anxious glances around the crowd as if trying to avoid someone.

"Oh, I've just escaped- I mean, I've just left Cormac," Hermione whispered back, craning her head over the crowd. "Let's move this way. We'll get a better look, he's so tall."

I smirked to myself as she walked by me. There was a twinge of guilt that I had set McLaggen on her, but it was quickly snuffed when I was reminded that she was me just a few weeks ago. I noticed Snape had slunk into the party and I grabbed Blaise by the wrist, pulling him in the opposite direction.

"What are you doing?" Blaise laughed. He gently slid his wrist out of my grasp and placed his hand on my lower back, steering me away from the crowd.

"Trying to get away from Snape," I giggled back, allowing him to lead me toward a door at the other end of the office. "Where are you taking me?"

"You'll see."

He glanced around quickly; making sure no one was paying any attention to us. The only people in the vicinity were two older witches, both of them sprawled over a tall wooden table, a crystal ball set in a vintage golden piece between them.

The door opened with a sharp click and I looked over my shoulder to see if anyone had noticed us. They hadn't. Blaise pushed open the door with one hand, steering me into the dark room with the other. The door shut behind us with a snap.

"Blaise? What are we-?"

He cut me off by crashing his lips onto mine. It wasn't like the kiss we shared a few weeks back after the quidditch game. This kiss was incredibly uncomfortable and not the slightest bit romantic. He pushed me up against the door, bending down to run his hands up my legs.

I managed to wriggle away from his lips and slap at his hands, which were starting to inch up my dress. "Stop! Blaise-" He responded by forcing his lips onto mine again, effectively cutting me off.

I pushed him away and, unlike Malfoy, he stumbled back. An angry expression flashed across his face.

"What? Isn't this what you want?" He took a step toward me, grabbing my hips and moving his head down to mine for the third time. I ducked, causing him to smack his head hard against the wooden door.

"I thought we were just coming to have a good time!" I managed to sputter out after I had created a comfortable distance between us.

Blaise laughed humorlessly. "Me? Have a good time with you?" He ran his fingers through his dark hair. "Do you know why I even asked you out in the first place? Hm? Draco Malfoy dared me to."

I felt a piece of me deep down start to numb. I couldn't feel my feet, my heart had dropped to my stomach.

"Merlin, you think someone like me would be willing to go out with you?" He laughed humorlessly again. "Oh, that's good. You want to know something else you stupid mudblood-loving bitch? The dare was to get in your pants by Christmas. Seems like I'm going to succeed."

A hungry, almost competitive look jumped back into his eyes and I scrambled across the dark room, narrowly avoiding his grabbing hands as I threw open the door and tripped back into the party.

No one had noticed my appearance, for the door was far from the crowded area of the office. In the orange light, I glanced back to see Blaise's stony face glaring at me from the doorway.

I turned away from him, pushing my way through the crowd.

"Natalie! Are you okay?" Harry had asked, as I had just rammed my shoulder into his back. He grabbed my hand instinctively, but I snatched it away in fright. The look of terror in my eyes must have startled him, because he let go of my hand as if it were on fire.

I continued to push through the crowd until I saw the door to the entrance, where I stumbled out into the hallway. It felt like I had stepped outside from the instant temperature change, but I didn't care at that moment in time. I just wanted to get as far away from the party as physically possible.

I didn't really know where I was going, but my feet seemed to carry me to hallway directly above the party. I could hear the music thump beneath me. Muffled voices carried through the floor.

"I'm surprised to see you up here."

I whipped around as my hand shot up to my mouth. I hadn't realized that I had been crying, but as my hand touched my face, it became wet with tears. Malfoy was seated on a large windowsill overlooking the lake. The moon's light was reflecting beautifully off the white snow, making it seem like it was almost daylight.

"Blaise," I began, "the party-"

Malfoy shook his head as he climbed off the windowsill and stood in front of me. Even in my four inch heels, he had a good five inches on me. His hand lightly brushed away the tears that still covered my face.

"What happened?" he asked quietly as he tucked a strand of hair behind my ear.

I sucked in a deep breath. "Blaise and I…he took me into this dark room and…he started to feel me up." I let out a short sob. "And it was a-awful! He wouldn't stop- even though I asked him to!"

Malfoy stopped wiping away my tears. He actually seemed to freeze in place.

"What else did he say?" he whispered, almost afraid to hear the answer.

My mind reeled back to the memory. I wanted to push it out of my head, but something Blaise had said jumped at me and I took a step back from Malfoy, looking up at him in disgust.

"He said that you guys had a dare that you could get into my pants by Christmas." I was silent for a moment, waiting for him to answer. When he didn't, I asked if it were true.

He took a deep breath, nodding his head slightly as he did so. I glared up at him in anger.

"Are you kidding me?" I felt a fresh batch of tears sting my eyes, threatening to fall with even the slightest movement. "After all that time we were friends and you didn't bother to mention this stupid bet you two had planned? I actually liked him! I thought we would have been good together!"

Malfoy scoffed down at me. "Don't kid yourself, Garcia. You and I both know that you did not think you two would have been good together." I opened my mouth to protest, but he cut me off quickly. "I saw the look on your face when he kissed you after the quidditch game."

I shifted uncomfortably on my feet. That point I couldn't deny. I had known for awhile that I didn't want to go with Blaise for an extended period of time, but I did like the attention I had gotten from him. I rounded back onto Malfoy. "We were friends, Malfoy! And you didn't bother mentioning-"

"I told you to stop seeing Blaise!" he exploded at me. "I told you to not accept his date request, you did. I told you not to go to this party with him and you did. Don't tell me that I didn't say anything to you!"

I let out a chuckle of anger. "That is not telling me anything. I thought you were jealous, I thought you wanted to-" I stopped myself, letting out the air I had been holding in. "It doesn't even matter anymore, because I hate you, Draco Malfoy. I hate you."

He looked stunned, hurt flashed across his face. "Excuse me?"

"I hate you," I seethed at him, "and everyone has been right about you. I thought you were a good person, that this outer shell was just an act. Obviously I was very wrong. Stay away from me, Malfoy. I don't want anything to do with you. Ever."

I stormed away from him, but he grabbed my arm. Before I knew what was happening, he planted his lips right onto mine. I was incredibly startled, but I couldn't help the butterflies that exploded in my stomach, rising through my chest and heating up my face.

His lips were warm and soft against mine. I leaned into him, kissing him back. He wrapped his fingers into my curled hair, his other hand clutched my lower back as he pulled me closer into his body. I grabbed a hold of his sweatshirt, dragging his head, if it were even possible, closer to mine.

He deepened the kiss for a moment, but then realization hit me like a ton of bricks. I shoved him away from me, breaking the kiss reluctantly. The butterflies were still dancing in my chest.

"What-" I started to say, but I cut myself off. I just turned and walked away, leaving him to stare bewildered after me.

I had gotten a few hallways away before I figured out what had happened. Draco Malfoy had kissed me. And I kissed him back. The heat was still in my face and I couldn't help the small smile that spread across my lips.

It was then I remembered what exactly had happened before the kiss, causing my anger to flare up indefinitely in the pit of my gut.

"And what do you think you're doing out of bed?"

I looked up to see Filch standing before me, a lit lantern clutched in his right hand.

I let out a deep breath. "I just left the Christmas party you stup-" I cut myself off, tightening and relaxing my hand. "Draco Malfoy is trying to crash the party," I finally said as I pointed behind me. "He's just a few hallways that way."

A look of glee crossed Filch's face as he scuttled by me, eager to reach the boy before he disappeared back into the depths of the castle. I continued my walk toward the common room, my mind reeling with the last hour's events.


	11. Chapter 11

I said my quick goodbyes to Padma, promising to write every day and meet in her Diagon Alley like we do the day before every winter term. I hopped off the train car and ran toward the luggage carrier at the end.

I had been incredibly successful in avoiding Malfoy in the common room last night after the kiss, in the morning at the breakfast table, and loading onto the train at eleven o'clock. Padma said my behavior was more erratic than usual, but I refused to relent. I had even vowed to stay in the compartment we picked for ourselves, drawing the curtains tight and only opening the door for strict every-two-hour bathroom breaks and the food cart.

"Merlin, crazy! Open the damn door!" Padma whined as she bounced up and down, clutching her bladder. "If you don't let me out of this compartment I will pee on the floor!"

I was guarding the door with my life, my arms thrown open so she couldn't reach the handle. "Good thing I have something to clean it up with!" I started to take my wand out of my back pocket, but she took the opportunity to push me out of the way and run down the hallway before I could catch her.

My best friend asked more than a few times what was going on when she got back, but I always gave a vague, non-answer such as 'Pansy' or 'I thought I saw Snape board the train.'

She didn't believe me, but I didn't indulge on the kiss Malfoy and I had shared the night before. That didn't mean that I didn't think about it, because, boy, did I think about it. Just once though. Maybe twice. A third time may or may not have slipped in there.

Okay, it was like a constant film was playing in my head over and over again. The butterflies in my stomach, the heat rising to my cheeks, his soft lips against mine. I shook my head as I waited in the line for my trunk, trying to knock the memory from my head.

I was just at the front of the line when I saw bright, blonde hair bobbing toward me from above the crowd. I ducked down so my trunk was taller than me, earning an odd glance from the luggage distributor. I didn't want to talk to Malfoy at all. That would mean bringing the kiss back up and Merlin knew that was the very last thing I wanted to talk about.

I walked in a kneeling position, making sure I didn't get run over by excited parents or children running amuck with their trunks stacked taller on a trolley than they were. Not that I had any room to talk, because if someone saw me from the right angle all they would see is a moving trunk.

I managed to kneel-walk my way over to the man who was guarding the brick column back into the muggle world. I stood up slowly, shaking the sore feeling out of my knees in the process.

"Don't even ask," I warned him as he sent me a look of concern, "You don't even know that half of it."

I grabbed one end of my trunk, about ready to pull it through the brick wall until I heard a loud "Natalie!"

I sucked in a large amount of air, coughing harshly as I whipped around in surprise. Malfoy was turned away from who I assumed was his mother, giving her the "give me a moment" gesture with his hands. He started to make his way toward me.

"You need to let me out of this station immediately," I said to the surprised guard, his eyes widened in shock. "Please, just let me out of here."

He shook his head. "Sorry, miss, but it's not safe to go yet. I haven't had the all clear-"

"You don't understand!" I yelped as I grabbed the front of his robes and shook him lightly. "That boy with the blonde hair that's headed over here…he kissed me last night and if I don't get out of this station NOW then he's going to try and talk to me!"

"Miss, I can't just-"

"This is a matter more important than the statue of secrecy!" I cut him off as I shook him lightly again, glancing over to Malfoy who was looking at me strangely from twenty feet away. The look on the guard's face was more than an answer for me and, right as Malfoy was about to open his mouth to say something, I grabbed my trunk and pushed my way through the brick wall.

"Merlin, Nat, you look like you've seen the ghost of Christmas past, present, and future wrapped into one."

I spun around, my hand over my heart as I spotted my older sister, Vanessa, standing behind me with her arms folded over her chest. I took a deep breath, scowling at her silently as I did so.

"You don't even know," I grumbled as I kicked the ground with the toe of my shoe. She smirked down at me, grabbing the other end of my trunk.

"You'll have to tell me about it when we get home." We started to make our way toward the exit door of King's Cross. "You're staying with me, by the way. Mum is at home with Eli. He has a bad cold right now."

We looked a lot alike, except she had gotten her height from our father. She stood at around five foot ten whereas I stood at five foot three; her dark, wavy locks cascaded softly down her back. She had deep, brown eyes that shimmered when she smiled.

Vanessa was gorgeous by any standard and I constantly told her to be a muggle model so we can be incredibly rich. She scoffed at me every time, but I wasn't going to back down. It was only a matter of time.

"Is Fletcher still at mum's house?" I wrinkled my nose in disgust. Fletcher was my mother's current boyfriend and Eli's father. He was, at best, around for six weeks before taking off again to do Merlin knows what.

She nodded her head, wrinkling her nose too. "Which is why you're staying with me. Grab my arm. This train station is giving me breathing problems."

We apparated back to her small flat on the outskirts of London. She had moved out of my mother's apartment right after graduating from Hogwarts three years ago, where she then went on to work as a secretary in the Auror office.

We had our share of sisterly hate, but it was her who stuck up for me when my mother left my father. She didn't have much, but she did make sure that I had everything I needed. Sometimes she even pulled doubles at work so she could send me some extra money. I don't know what I would do without her.

I set my trunk down next to the couch in her living room, where I would probably be sleeping for the next couple weeks. One thing I would be missing from the Slytherin dormitories- my own bed.

"Hey, Nat? It looks like you have a letter waiting." I turned away from the couch and headed into the small kitchen around the corner. There waiting on the fold-out table was a black eagle-owl. He hooted softly before taking off out the open window over the sink.

Vanessa picked up the letter and stretched out her arm to hand it to me.

"Whose it from?" I asked suspiciously. I had seen that owl many, many times in the great hall bringing sweets from home for a certain blonde haired boy.

She shrugged and flicked the envelope toward me like a Frisbee. I caught it clumsily between my two palms, effectively smearing the still-wet ink onto my top palm.

"Damn," I shook my head as I stuck my little finger into a flap in the envelope. I tore it open quickly and took out of the thick, folded parchment.

_You're being really immature about this. It was just a kiss.  
>Merlin knows you do not need to ignore me.<br>Just write me back._

I rolled my eyes at the note. I tossed it onto the kitchen table, where it slid a few inches and then stopped. Vanessa cocked an eyebrow at me.

"Aren't you going to write back?"

I blew air out of my nose, irritated. "Nope. Not going to happen."

She chuckled before patting the doorframe leading to the kitchen. "I'm going to see mum in a few. Are you coming?"

I nodded my head. "Yeah, give me a few minutes. I'll go with you."

My mother lived in an even smaller flat than Vanessa's on the other side of London. It was a pretty bad area, which meant we usually kept to ourselves as children. I was six when we moved from my hometown in Spain with my parents and sister, eight when my mother took us and moved out of our home in the English countryside, and nine when she took up residence in the small apartment she still lives in now.

Vanessa rapped on the door quickly, shooting me a glare telling me to behave when we heard "I'm coming!" yelled from inside the apartment. It's not that I didn't love my mother, because I did. It was just…I blamed her for a lot of things that happened when I was younger.

The door flew open, revealing a short, disheveled woman. Her dark, curly hair was frizzy and everywhere despite her best efforts. A waft of cooking food drifted into the hallway and I breathed in deeply. One reason I was glad to me home- my mother's cooking was amazing.

She grabbed Vanessa and pulled her into a tight hug. "You work too much!" she exclaimed happily as she pulled back, placing both hands on either side of Vanessa's face. She looked over Vanessa's shoulder toward me, where I shuffled awkwardly under her gaze.

She held her arms out toward me, pushing Vanessa gently aside. I smiled slightly, moving into her grasp. She pulled me close, hugging me tightly as she rocked back and forth.

"My baby girl," she whispered into my ear. She moved away slowly, smiling at me. "Come inside, tell me all about your school year so far."

Vanessa gestured for me to go in first. I obliged, following my mother back into the small flat. It was the same as it was when I was a child. Two bedrooms down the hallway with a kitchen and living room that were technically the same room. It was decorated heavily with Spanish pictures, statues, and other tokens my mother had collected over the years.

Eli sat on the floor sniffling, waving a wand around his head playfully.

"Eli!" mum shrieked as she scrambled over to the three-year old, grabbing the wand. "What did mummy tell you about playing with wands?"

I tried to hide my snort by coughing, but Vanessa caught it and elbowed me in the side. I rubbed the now sore spot, glaring at her.

"Oh, Nat, darling. A letter arrived for you just before you showed up," mum said as she put her wand on top of the refrigerator, where Eli couldn't reach it. "I was really surprised actually. I thought it would be delivered to Vee's house."

I eyed the letter in her hand darkly. "Do you know who sent it?"

My mother shrugged, laying the letter back onto the countertop. "I have no idea. Chicken scratch on the envelope, delivered by a black owl." A look of contemplation flashed across her face. "Looked like a pretty expensive owl."

I stormed over to the letter, ripping it open angrily. Ignoring my mother's cries of surprise at my sudden outburst, I tore the letter out of the envelope and unfolded it quickly.

_I knew you would ignore the first one, so don't worry.  
>I have a whole stack of letters here to send you until you stop acting like a child.<br>Until next time…_

I shook my head, ripping up the letter. "Stupid, stupid, ferret," I grumbled as I tossed the pieces into the garbage.

"Geeze, Nat. Answer the poor guy, will ya?"

Eli started to cry at that moment, saving me from having to respond. The door flew open, bringing in a cold draft. Fletcher waltzed in, tattered jacket and all. He bared his yellowing teeth at me in a smile and I scowled back at him.

Mundungus Fletcher (I just called him Fletcher) was a man that my mother had met a few years back working at a local muggle pub in town. It turned out he was a wizard trying to stay out of the wizarding community. Something about a few bad men looking for him. A hop, skip, and a jump later Eli comes into this world and Fletcher still skips town every so often for "business" purposes, but I'm no fool. I've seen the cauldrons and other magical objects he's got stashed around my mother's apartment.

"Vee or Nat, could you get the bread out of the oven?" mum called from across the room as she picked up Eli off the floor, cuddling him for a moment to get him to stop crying. Vanessa grabbed a pair of oven mitts and set the bread on top of the stove to cool.

Fletcher pulled a pipe out of the inside of his jacket, lighting it quickly with a touch of his wand.

"Merlin, Fletcher, not in the damn house!" I exclaimed as I stomped over to him and pulled the pipe from his mouth, throwing it into the sink with a loud clang. He glowered at me silently.

"Please," my mom begged quietly, "It's Christmas. Can't we put aside our differences for now?" She walked over to me and put a hand on my cheek, but I brushed it away.

"Get him out of here and I will," I hissed at her. Tears sprang to her eyes as she backed up toward Fletcher, who pulled her down onto his lap, smiling at me from over her shoulder.

I shuttered in disgust.

He turned his gaze back toward my mother. "I've been able to sell a few items from my good, old friend Sirius Black. I'm hoping to be able to buy you and Eli something good this holiday."

I rolled my eyes, pleased when I saw Vanessa do the same out of the corner of my eye. He's said that every year, but hasn't come through with it once. I don't know why my mother stayed with the creep. I hated him and, despite her best efforts to deny it, I know Vanessa did too.

My mother smiled sweetly at him as he kissed her bare shoulder.

"Yeah, I'll come back tomorrow," I said as I quickly made my way toward the door before anyone could say anything. "I'll see you at home, Vee." I shut the door behind me with a snap, breathing in the cool, winter air. Like I said, it's not that I didn't love my mother. I just blamed her for a lot of things…Fletcher being one of them.

Over my dead body would I be around if Fletcher was. My mother made her choice three years ago and that's when I decided to move in with Vanessa for vacations.

I kicked at the snow on the sidewalk as I made my way back toward Vee's apartment building. It was a good walking distance from mum's apartment, so I decided to make the most of it.

That is, until that damn owl scared me to pieces by pecking on my head twenty minutes later.

"Hey!" I squawked in surprise, waving my hands above my head to shoo the bird away. "Get out of here. It's the middle of the day! Don't you have any common sense?"

The owl looked down at me blankly from its perch on a mailbox.

"Of course," I grumbled as I took the letter from its beak, "your owner is Draco Malfoy after all. How could you have any sense?"

The bird shot me an indignant look as I opened the third letter for that day.

_This is getting out of hand, Garcia.  
>Can't you just suck up your pride and scribble some nonsense on a piece of parchment?<br>Lucky for you, I've instructed my owl to follow you around until you write back._

I folded up the letter and shoved it into my shoulder bag. I glared at the owl, daring it to follow me as I made my way down the empty street. A swish of air over my head and the noise of a small beat of a wing told me the bird was keeping its promise to Malfoy.

"You know what," I said in a frustrated tone as I took the letter out of my bag, "fine. FINE. You both win. How do you feel now?" I pulled a quill out of my bag, slightly ashamed at myself for venting to a bird.

_I don't want to talk to you.  
>Make like a ferret and bounce.<br>-Nat_

I folded the piece of parchment back up and stuffed it into the owl's beak. It gave a muffled hoot of gratitude before opening its wings and taking flight. I watched it fly away for a moment before putting my head down against the cold, bitter wind and fighting my way back to the warmth of Vanessa's apartment.

**Hey everyone!  
>Sorry it's been so long. I had a pretty busy weekend, but I hoped you enjoyed chapter 11!<br>As always, reviews are appreciated!**

**-Ohsnapxitsemyy**


	12. Chapter 12

"You could at least try to be polite," Vanessa scolded me a few days after Christmas. I had snuck a dungbomb into Fletcher's food, where it went off as soon as he stuck his fork into it. I grinned at the memory, suppressing it quickly when I caught the look on Vanessa's face.

I sighed. "It's not worth it, Vee. He's a terrible, awful human being who-"

"Makes mum happy. For whatever reason," she cut me off. She sighed deeply, fixing her work robes in the front. "She works really hard to try and keep the family together, you know."

I stayed quiet, knowing anything I said would probably come out bitchy. I fumbled with a string that hung off the bottom of my sweater. Christmas really had been a nightmare and I found myself wondering why I hadn't stayed at school over break.

My face must have reflected what I was thinking, because Vanessa turned around from her position in front of the mirror in the bathroom and sat on her bed next to me.

"I know what's on your mind," she started quietly as she put an arm around my shoulder, "And for what it's worth…I'm glad that you came home for Christmas. It's not every day that I get to see my sister." She lightly bumped shoulders with me and I smiled up at her.

"Now, are you going to tell me who all those letters are from?" she asked as she stood up from the bed. "And don't tell me it's from nobody. I know you well enough to know that you don't write constant letters to just anybody."

My cheeks reddened at her comment. It was true. Malfoy and I had been conversing via letter for the last week. Usually about three times a day, sometimes more. I was afraid of what going back to school would bring, because right now it didn't seem that awkward.

"It's a boy," I shuffled my feet on the carpet, "we've had quite a…rollercoaster of a relationship for the past few months."

Vanessa glanced at me in the mirror, waiting for me to continue. I sighed.

"Basically Draco Malfoy and I hated each other, then became friends, then hated each other, then I dated his best friend, then we were friends, then I hated him and then he kissed me right before term ended and I avoided him the last day, but now we're talking again."

She stared at me in shock. "Wait…when did you date someone? And since when are you friends with that twit? And why am I just now finding out?"

I chuckled as I sat back on my elbows. "It's really a long story."

"Save it then," she said as she placed her wand into the inside of her robes. "I'm already on the verge of being late to work. Promise to tell me later?"

I nodded as she made her way out of the bedroom.

"Don't blow up the apartment building!" she called back to me before slamming the door shut behind her. I lay back onto the bed with a huff, wondering what I was going to do that day. Padma was out of the country visiting her extended family in India. I had only talked to her a few times, but I also knew that, from past conversations, her extended family was quite crazy and she really wouldn't have much time.

I made my way into the living room and grabbed a pair of black boots from beside the door. My best bet would be to head toward Diagon Alley, maybe pick up something new with the money my mother had given me for Christmas.

And for the record, Fletcher hadn't bought my mother or brother anything for the holiday.

I stowed my wand into the back pocket of my jeans, pulling my long sleeved shirt down so it covered the rest of it, before I shut and locked the apartment door behind me. The wind seemed to have picked up within the last few days. It blew loose snow across the sidewalk and it stung against my face. I pulled my scarf over my mouth and averted my eyes to the ground.

I briskly walked down the street, finally stumbling across the Leaky Cauldron. I pushed open the door of the pub, shaking the snow out of my hair as I went.

"Ah! Natalie! I haven't seen you in such a long time!"

I smiled at the bartender, Tom, who pulled out an empty glass and quickly filled it with warm butterbeer. I took a seat on a barstool and took the steaming mug from the man.

"Thanks!" I said gratefully as I took a sip. The hot liquid burned my tongue, but warmed up my throat as it slid down. I shuddered pleasantly, setting the mug back down onto the bar.

"How's school going? I haven't seen that sister of yours around here either."

"She's just been busy," I shrugged as I wrapped my hands around the cup, "And school has been good. Just getting ready for NEWT exams next year." I rolled my eyes and he chuckled.

"Well, I know you'll do great, but if you don't I'm always in need of a helping hand around here!"

I glanced around. The place was pretty full for being mid-day. Smoke from a witch's pipe down the bar started to drift toward me and I waved it away.

"I'm going to get going," I said a few moments later once I had finished the butterbeer. "I have to go look around a bit. Haven't been down here since before school started." Tom bowed me politely out of the pub, telling me to come back soon because he missed my company. I promised him I would visit before winter term started as I left out the back door that led to Diagon Alley.

I was more so excited to go into Weasley Wizard Weezes and stock up on my joke supply. Everyone in Slytherin sneered at their career choices, but I thought it was brilliant. No one could make me laugh like the Weasley twins used to.

The sharp, winter air cut through me like a knife as I stepped onto the narrow, winding street that led through Diagon Alley. I took a deep breath through my scarf, thankful for its ability to warm the air before it got to me.

I window shopped for awhile, making my way slowly down the main road. I liked seeing the bright displays throughout the place, even though most of it I would never buy.

I hadn't been paying attention to where I was going and I ended up bumping into a tall something. It whipped around and I had my apology ready to fire off, until I realized who it was.

"Natalie?" Malfoy's eyes crinkled in confusion as he pulled his scarf down from his mouth. "What are you doing here?"

I sighed internally. "Obviously the same thing you're doing here." I gestured toward the bottle of Mead he had dangling at his side. "Shopping."

He looked down at the bottle in surprise. "Oh, no I got this from Madam Rosmerta a few days before school let out. I was hoping to trade it in for something better around here."

We sat in a stony silence for a moment, before he spoke up again.

"We need to talk about what happened at school."

I made a move to push past him, but he caught my arm with his free hand and pulled me back. "Come on, Garcia, lighten up. You've been purposefully changing the subject whenever I tried writing about it the past few days."

I rocked back and forth on the heels of my feet. "I have not," I said indignantly, though my heart wasn't into the response and he caught on immediately.

"Please, don't be stupid," he scoffed, "I know you've been avoiding it."

I was silent for another moment as I looked at the ground.

"Come on, Garcia. Walk with me," Malfoy said as he threw his arm around my shoulder. My heart quickened at his touch and I mentally chastised it for being a traitor.

"It was just a kiss," he said after a few minutes of silence, his arm still draped around my shoulder, "I've kissed many girls before and none of them have avoided me afterward." He paused, a smirk coming to his face. "Actually, most of them came back begging for more."

I swatted his stomach. "You are completely disgusting. And for the record, I'm not many girls and I am a certified avoider."

He snorted, steering me toward a small book shop at the end of the block. "I've got to stop in and pick up a present for my father. Wait for me?"

I nodded my head, wrapping my arms around myself to keep warm. The door to the small shop shut with a ding and I looked up, catching the name of the bookstore out of the corner of my eye.

_Balfour Bashir's_

I frowned as I looked back down the street. I hadn't noticed how far off the main road we had gone. I wasn't exactly sure where we were to be honest. I glanced around the other end of the street, but it was empty apart from the swirling snow making its way across the road.

One thing I did notice, however, was a large poster plastered up onto a brick wall across from me. I narrowed my eyes, slowly making my way toward the poster. It was sectioned off, five faces leering down at me from their photograph. The top read ARMED AND DANGEROUS- FIVE DEATH EATERS ESCAPE AZKABAN.

My gaze shifted down the poster, my curiosity peeking as I recognized a few last names from people I go to school with. My stare stopped dead at a man with a scruffy, brown beard. His eyes seemed to bore into me. I recognized that stare. I found the name of the man underneath his picture.

ALEXANDER GARCIA  
>WANTED FOR MURDER OF MUGGLE FAMILY<br>WANTED FOR MURDER OF THREE AURORS  
>WANTED FOR ATTEMPTED MURDER OF AUROR FAMILIES<p>

My breath caught in my throat, the muscles in my chest seemed to constrict my heart enough to make it drop to the pit of my stomach. I left my lower limbs go numb and I knew I wouldn't be able to move even if I tried.

In the background I heard the bell signaling the door to the shop being opened and closed.

"Natalie?"

The crunch of the snow broke me from the dead-stare I had on the poster. I turned around slowly, pointing to the pictures as I did so.

"Did you know about this?" I asked Malfoy, who seemed to be mildly surprised by my question. He opened and closed his mouth for a moment, seemingly unsure of how to respond.

"I thought you knew," he sneered at me, though it wasn't the usual bullying sneer he had at school, "I thought his family would be the first thing he sought out."

I took a slightly hysterical deep breath, my fear confirmed. "I haven't spoken to my father in eight years! Eight years, Malfoy! Come to find out he was a-a-"

"He's working for the Dark Lord," Malfoy finished haughtily as he took a step toward me, "he's doing what he thinks is right to-"

I took a step away from him. "You knew? You knew about my father and you didn't bother to tell me? I thought we were friends!"

He laughed humorlessly. "How so I supposed to know that you didn't know about your father? Merlin, Garcia, how the hell did you get into Slytherin if you didn't know your own father was a death eater?"

I narrowed my eyes at him. "You sound proud."

He puffed out his chest, but I noticed the dark rings under his eyes, his paler than usual skin was thrown into the lighting at that small motion. I took a step toward him, my feet moving involuntarily.

"Are you alright, Malfoy?" I took another step toward him. "You look awful."

Malfoy was, again, caught off guard. Though this time, he recovered quickly. "I'm fine, Garcia," he snapped, "just recovering from a cold, that's all."

"That is not recovering from a cold, that definitely looks like stress-"

"I am not stressed!" he exclaimed rather loudly. His voice resounded like a gunshot down the empty street. I looked up at him in shock. "I'm not stressed. Things are going to go right. This time it's going to work." He was muttering more to himself than to me, which I found quite alarming.

"Malfoy? What the hell is going on with you? First you want to be friends, then you kiss me, then-"

"Oh! Now you want to talk about that kiss, Garcia? Now are you ready to stop avoiding that damn subject?" his tone was rough, almost unforgiving. "Maybe I don't want to talk about it anymore. I have better things to do."

He started to storm off toward the main road, but in a moment of anger I picked up a ball of snow and threw it at his back. It hit right on target and he stopped in his tracks, turning slowly on the balls of his feet. He fired a glare at me, but I didn't break the connection.

He walked back toward me, a small smirk appearing on his face. "Did you really just throw a ball of snow at me?"

"Yes, I did," I replied defiantly, crossing my arms over my chest, "you don't just walk away from me mid-conversation."

He sighed, running his hand through his wet, blonde hair. "We weren't conversing. We were fighting."

I shrugged lightly. "What else have we been doing for the last five years? We fight, we throw curses at each other, we sabotage homework projects. It's what we do."

He shook his head. "I don't want to fight anymore." He seemed defeated, like a small part of him had given up.

"You weren't talking about us," I stated.

"I was talking about us," he growled, "I don't even know what the hell this thing is between us. What is this thing? It's not a friendship, we're obviously not enemies. I don't know what that kiss was for. I just don't know!"

I stayed quiet for a moment, waiting for him to calm down.

"I just…I have to go. I have more important things to think about." He turned around again, making his way toward the main street for the second time.

"Hey! I wasn't done talking to you!" I yelled at his back as I picked up another ball of snow.

"Don't you dare throw snow at me again!" he yelled back, not bothering to look around at me. The snow swirled around him, clinging to his jeans, creating small wet spots up the pant legs.

"So much for just me avoiding the subject!" I wasn't sure if he had heard me though, because he didn't respond. I huffed in frustration, fighting my way through the cold toward the main street.

After twenty minutes of battling the wind and snow, I finally shut the door to Vanessa's apartment with a snap, effectively cutting off the bitter breeze that continued to howl outside. I was gone for longer than I thought, for Vanessa was already home from work and sitting on the couch eating a bowl of soup.

"I hoped you would be home soon!" she squealed as she scooted over, making room for me on the couch. "I've wanted to hear the story of these boys all day!"

I unraveled my scarf from around my neck, hanging it over the door knob to dry. I quickly kicked off my boots and threw myself on the couch next to my sister.

"I want to hear another story first," I bargained with her as I dipped one of her crackers into the soup and shoved it into my mouth.

"What's that?"

I took a deep breath. "I want to hear why I just saw a picture of dad on a wanted poster in Diagon Alley."

Whatever Vanessa was expecting to hear, it wasn't that. She fumbled with the bowl of soup, almost dropping it out of her hands. She looked at me in shock.

"What do you want do know?"

"Everything."

She started with explaining how we had moved from Spain to England so father could transfer Ministries. A new position had opened up alongside the minister and he was quite keen on getting it. A few months went by and it was great, but something inside my father had started to change. He would come home late from "work meetings" covered in blood, scaring my mother and sister half to death.

Sometimes he wouldn't come home at all.

A few years had gone by and my mother had finally plucked up enough courage to pack up our things while my father was away at work. Vanessa was home from Hogwarts at that time, so she helped move things from the house into a small trailer on the outskirts of London.

I remembered living in that trailer for a short amount of time, but I never understood why we had moved. Mostly I complained about not having room to run like I did at our old house in the countryside.

Vanessa continued. It was a good thing my mother had moved us, for a few nights later our old home was invaded by aurors, who placed my father under arrest for all the horrible things he had done for the past two years.

My sister didn't know why he had become a death eater. All she knew was that he had and, ever since that night he was arrested, had been paying for his choices. Up until a week ago when it was discovered that he and four other men escaped from the legendary prison.

I gaped at her in shock. "Why didn't you ever tell me? I'm sixteen years old-"

"Exactly!" she cut me off quickly, taking both my hands in to hers. "Mum was trying so hard to protect you and, as you grew older you didn't ask about dad as much, so I just didn't bring it up. I don't want you drawn into what father started."

We were silent for another moment, taking in the conversation.

"When you were sorted into Slytherin six years ago, I was scared for you. When you told me this morning that you were friends with Draco Malfoy, that terrified me. Please, promise me you won't get yourself into any of this," she pleaded, her eyes bore into mine.

I took a deep breath and finally nodded my head. She seemed to sigh relief out, as her body finally relaxed against the couch since the beginning of the conversation.

What she didn't know won't hurt her, I thought as I slumped against the couch with her. I was determined to find out what was going on with Malfoy. He looked sick, and not cold or flu sick either. Something was going on with him.

He knew about my father. He knew about what he had done and I wanted answers. I amped up my curiosity, even more determined to figure out than I was at the beginning of the year.

**Hey everyone!  
>Happy Thanksgiving! Hope you're all having a wonderful holiday and, if you aren't celebrating, hope you're having a wonderful day!<br>Hope you enjoyed chapter 12.  
>Review please!<strong>


	13. Chapter 13

**Dear readers,  
>It has come to my attention that reviews have come to a rather disappointing halt.<br>I would just like to say if you would like me to continue on telling my story to Ohsnapxitsemyy then those pretty little messages of encouragement should pick back aogtagharg….**

**Sorry everyone, Draco can't seem to stop threatening peop-agajsgahgag**

**If you don't review, the end of the story will be that I killed Natalie and all of the wizarding world will be- alfkjaghahgvag**

**Stop, Draco, just stop. But seriously, reviews would be awesome.**

**Love, Natalie and Draco**

A few days after the New Year I was sitting back in the library before breakfast (having had my library privileges restored with the promise that my New Year's resolution to Madam Pince would be to not destroy that part of the castle again) with Padma as she flicked through her potion's book in search of ingredients to include in the latest essay Slughorn had assigned.

"Are you sure about this?"she asked apprehensively, sending me a concerned look.

"Absolutely I'm sure about this!" I nodded, determined, as I set my heavy book bag on the table with a resounding bang. Padma winced as she glanced at the bag. "This is the last time Pansy Parkinson gets the best of me!"

Evidently, Pansy had spent the entire Christmas break plotting a list of things to do to make my life completely miserable. In the last two days she had dyed my hair orange (not attractive), jinxed my nose so it looked like I was smuggling walnuts up it (not pretty), and even had gone so far as to try and intercept the package my sister had sent me with the things I had forgotten crammed inside it.

Probably to cut the sleeves off my shirts or something as equally irritating.

I had a feeling this sudden hostility had something to do with the small, but accurate, rumor of Malfoy breaking up with Pansy for the ninth time over the holiday season to "broaden his horizons in the world of women." She had to take all that anger out on something and, unfortunately, that something was me.

"I think this is somewhat illegal," Padma commented again as she jotted down some notes on the side of her potion's book.

I scoffed at her. "Illegal? You…you obviously can't get in trouble here for doing something illegal. For Merlin's sake, look at the list of wrongs Harry Potter has done in the past six years. I, for one, have never entered my name into a tournament when I was clearly underage. That was illegal."

"You tried to. You had that beard for ten minutes to prove it," she pointed out, "and wasn't it fake Moody that put his name in the tournament? Not Harry himself? Plus, isn't it kind of tacky of you to consistently bring up Harry's adventures when you want to validate yours? He is kind of a canary in a coal mine around here."

I deliberately pretended to not hear her.

"Besides," she continued, finally setting down her quill, "can't you do something normal like…turning her ears into octopus tentacles?"

"That was an accident. I couldn't do it again even if I tried…and trust me, I tried. Pansy will never see this one coming. She has always been a few cards short of a full deck."

Padma contemplated this for a moment before shrugging and returning to her potion's essay. Pansy had given me a great idea once she had decided to try and intercept my mail (and she even tried doing it in front of me...that girl continuously surprises me.) I knew from years of personal observation that every time Malfoy wanted to get back together with her, he had sent her a box of Honeyduke's chocolates.

And my sister had given me a box of Honeyduke's chocolates a few days before I had left for the second half of the school year.

I pulled out the empty Honeyduke's box along with another box of sealed chocolates that had come in the mail at breakfast yesterday morning. Smirking to myself, I opened the sealed box and started placing the small, round chocolates into the empty slots of the Honeyduke's box. When I was done, I sealed the now full box with a quick flick of my wrist.

"You have a dark, dark mind Natalie Garcia," Padma sighed, "Funny, but definitely dark and slightly twisted."

I laughed quietly as I stuffed both boxes into my book bag, scooting the library chair back with a shrill screech. Madam Pince glared at me over her glasses, but fortunately didn't say anything. I weaved my way through the crowd and, a few minutes later, found myself up in the Owlery at the top of one of the towers.

Giggling to myself, I pulled the Honeyduke's box from my book bag and whistled down an owl.

"This goes to Pansy Parkinson in Slytherin house," I told the owl as I stroked its head. "Give me a minute before you deliver it so I can get to the Great Hall." It hooted softly as if to say it understood and I quickly tore out of the tower, down the staircases, and back into the main hallway.

Breathing deeply, I collapsed next to Padma (who had apparently beaten me to breakfast) at the Ravenclaw table.

"You should work out more if that tired you out," she commented as she offered me a piece of toast. I took it gladly, but didn't say anything. I actually couldn't say anything at that point, because I was in the process of trying to get my breathing under control.

I watched closely as a heap of owls swooped in, mine to Pansy included, and dropped packages off to their owners before gracefully flying out. An owl, looking as good as much lungs felt at that particular moment, flew straight into a pitcher of milk in front of Ron Weasley, knocking it over and drenching everybody in the vicinity.

I heard a distant squeal of surprise and I glanced up in happiness as Pansy hugged the Honeyduke's box tight to her chest, peering gleefully down the table toward an oblivious Draco Malfoy. He looked a little better from when I had seen him in Diagon Alley, but not by much. A little color had returned to his face, but dark circles were still present under his eyes.

He must have felt my gaze on him, as he glanced down the Slytherin table quickly before lifting his head to look toward Ravenclaw's. He stared at me a moment before smirking slightly and winking. I felt the heat rush to my face as I dropped my gaze back toward the toast that still sat in front of me.

Seeing him reminded me of the conversation we had back in Diagon Alley. We had only written once since the words about the kiss were exchanged, but his wink made it clear to me that we were obviously on some sort of speaking terms again.

This would essentially work in my favor considering I hadn't forgotten about the conversation with my sister and I wanted to know as much about the work my father was doing as physically possible. And I knew Draco Malfoy would be the keeper of that knowledge.

Padma elbowed me and gestured subtly toward Pansy, who had jumped up from her seat. She practically skipped toward Malfoy, who was still oblivious of the entire situation, and bent down to whisper in his ear. His eyes widened in shock, which quickly turned into confusion as he whipped around on the bench to look at Pansy. She winked and wiggled her fingers at him in a wave.

He turned back toward the table, confusion written all over his face. I had slapped a hand over my mouth to stop myself from busting into a fit of laugher.

"This is wrong. On so many different levels," Padma chuckled, buttering a piece of toast.

I smiled at her, beckoning her to follow me to Defense Against the Dark Arts. "We have to see how the rest of the story unfolds!" She hopped up from her seat, shoving the piece of toast in her mouth as she went.

We filed quietly into the classroom, taking our seats across the room from each other. She smirked knowingly at me as we both glanced over to Pansy, who had just started to undo the seal of the chocolates.

I felt Malfoy sit down beside me, not bothering to take my eyes off Pansy as I smelled the sharp scent of his cologne.

"The weirdest-" he started to say, but I cut him off with a harsh "shh!" as I held up my hand to his face. Pansy had taken one of the chocolates out of the box and was starting to eat them suggestively, her body turned toward Malfoy. She winked at him as she finished off the first one, picking up the second one slowly.

"Why does she keep doing that?" Malfoy questioned after a moment of us watching her eat the chocolates together. "It's like she thinks I gave those to her."

I shrugged, keeping my mouth tightly shut. On the inside, I was dying of happiness as she ate one chocolate after another after another. Malfoy grimaced in disgust right as Snape entered the classroom, slamming the door behind him as he went.

"She'll probably get sick after eating all that," he murmured to me as we both reached into our bags and took out our books. "Stupid cow."

"You have no idea," I muttered back as I snuck a look at her, only to see her devouring yet another piece of chocolate.

Malfoy was silent for a moment, but I could tell he was calculating in his mind. "Wait," he finally whispered, "did you send those to her?"

I nodded slowly, enjoying the pure elation on her face as she finished off the last chocolate in the box. Malfoy glanced between me and her. "Does this have anything to do with the orange hair?"

"And the mail interception and the walnuts in my nose."

"You didn't have walnuts in your nose."

"That's besides the-"

"Is there something the two of you would like to share?" Snape sneered as he stood in front of us, flicking his wand to stop the slideshow of pictures going on at the front. "It seems your conversation is much more important than my lesson."

"No, sir," Malfoy retorted sarcastically. Snape just eyed him for a quick moment before returning to the front of the classroom, resuming his lesson in the process. I gaped at Malfoy in astonishment. If I would have spoken to Snape like that, he would have finally hung me from my big toes in the dungeon and slowly pickled each part of my body like he had been threatening for the last six years.

An hour went by as Snape droned on about counter curses and their effects on the human body. I had started to drift off, but Malfoy's constant movement kept me from falling asleep entirely. I eyed him in irritation and he smirked at me. My gaze faltered for a moment. He must have been in an incredibly good mood to have looked at me that way.

I was drawn from my thoughts quickly when I saw Pansy's hand shoot up out of the corner of my eye.

"Miss Parkinson?"

"Sir, I'm sorry sir, but may I be excused?"

I turned a snort into a cough as he exhaled slowly through his nose. "It can wait. I'm in the middle of-"

"I'm sorry, sir. But it really can't." Her face tinged a dull pink at her interruption. He slowly walked toward her, quite menacingly, and I was happy that Malfoy seemed to be the only person he favored.

"What on earth is so important that you have to skip out on my lesson? It seems, Miss Parkinson, that your grade is already at an intolerable low."

She squirmed uncomfortably in her seat as she realized that all eyes were on her. Her face blushed from the dull pink to a bright red as she muttered about having to use the ladies' room. Muted sniggers erupted around the classroom as she squirmed in her seat once again.

"And that can't wait?" Snape confronted her as he bent down to put both hands on her desk. She seemed to shrink down in size a bit as she stumbled out something about bad stomach problems.

The sniggers were quite a bit louder this time and I found myself trying not to crack up laughing at her predicament. This seemed to be playing out much better than I imagined.

Snape picked up the empty box of Honeyduke's from the classroom floor and held it up for everyone to see. "Maybe if you hadn't eaten so much candy before my class, you wouldn't be having this problem."

"I-I…I had gotten them as a gift this morning," she stammered out, "from Draco…you see-"

"I did not sent those to you," Draco glared at me as he piped up to defend himself, "but Natalie here was just telling me that she had."

I gaped at the betrayal as he smirked down at me. "You should have known better. I will not go down for this. You don't understand how crazy she is," he muttered as Snape slowly made his way toward me. It was my turn to squirm in my seat.

"Would you care to enlighten us on why Miss Parkinson has stomach problems?"

I shrugged light heartedly. "Like you said, sir. Probably ate too many sweets."

Snape didn't seem to find my answer endearing. "Empty your bag Miss Garcia."

I stared at him for a second, absorbing what he said. Next to me, I felt Draco reach under the table and fidget with something before sitting straight up again.

"You heard me. Turn your bag upside down and empty it."

I leered at him for a moment before grabbing my bag off the stone floor and turning it upside down, shaking it theatrically for a second. All eyes were on me as Snape poked through the contents. Books, broken quills, and extra parchment. But the box containing the other chocolates had mysteriously vanished.

I let out a deep breath of relief at my luck as Snape glared at his misfortune of not being able to pin something on me before excusing Pansy to use the restroom and continuing on with class.

"Chocolate flavored laxatives," Draco smirked as he sauntered up behind me a few hallways away from Defense Against the Dark Arts. He was holding the empty box of chocolates in his hand, reading the label dramatically, "that has to be the best one yet."

I smiled sweetly at him as I grabbed the box from his hand. "Thank Merlin for you! I thought I was going to be busted by Snape for sure. Thank you, by the way, by completely throwing me under the rampaging hippogriff. Really appreciated that one."

"Did you just thank Merlin for me?" he said, his smirk growing as he fell into step beside me, "that's a new one. I haven't had anyone thank Merlin for my existence."

I snorted. "You're taking that one too far, Malfoy. I definitely did not thank him for your existence. And how did you know about the laxative box in my bag?"

He shrugged, hitching his bag higher onto his shoulder. "I had divination this morning. The bat of a professor continually tells me I have the makings of a true seer." He glanced in amusement down at me. I cocked an eyebrow at him. "And I saw the box of laxatives in your bag when we both reached down to pull out our books. Not exactly the queen of subtly, are you Natalie?"

I froze for a moment, completely thrown off. "Did you just call me Natalie?"

He wrinkled his forehead in mock confusion. "Erm…isn't that your name?"

"Well yeah." I faltered for a moment, before continuing on. "But you've never called me Natalie. Ever."

"Circumstances have changed," he responded ominously as he broke off from me, making his way toward another end of the castle.

"You need to stop walking away from me mid-conversation!" I yelled at his back, but the only response I got was a quick wave. I glared at his back before turning to head toward potions, where I finally caught up with Padma.

"You and Malfoy seem to be getting along swimmingly," she said with a rather accusing look on her face. "Anything I should know about?"

I forced my face to wrinkle in disgust, mostly to hide the dull blush that had arisen on my face. "That's gross. Nothing like that. We were just arguing, nothing out of the usual."

The spark in her eyes told me that she didn't believe me, but was going to drop the subject. I looked around the room in boredom. Everyone was pulling out their cauldrons and weight sets, as Slughorn had set a rather difficult lesson of identifying the potion in your given vial and making an antidote to counter it.

I pushed my way through the crowd to grab two vials and made my way back toward our table in the middle of the classroom.

"It's a shame the Prince won't be able to help you in this one Harry," I heard Hermione say quite cheerfully as I passed her table. I couldn't help but catch the smugness in her tone and I wondered for a moment if the Prince (whatever that was) was what had made Harry become the best potions student in our year.

As I handed the vial to Padma, she hastened to uncork it and pour it into her cauldron, where she started a string of complex sounding spells to figure out what exactly the potion was. I watched her for a moment. It was clear to me that I was going to fail this particular lesson, which was okay with me considering potions was never my cup of tea.

A rather loud explosion followed by a foul smell pulled me from my thoughts and I turned my head to see Seamus Finnigan covered in black soot, his wand frozen in his hand in mid-air as he stared down at his now-on fire cauldron.

I snorted at the sight, wondering why I was even surprised. I turned back to my own assignment and quickly uncorked it, pouring it in the cauldron.

An hour later, I wasn't any closer to finding the antidote than when I started. In reality, I was probably even farther away than when I started, because I had started to just throw in random ingredients to hopes that somehow I would throw in the right ones.

Slughorn came around a few times, nodding proudly down at Padma's potion. I noticed that he didn't even bother coming around to mine. He probably knew it was a lost cause from the moment he set the assignment. That, and my potion did look rather unstable, as it kept shaking like a volcano that was about to erupt.

"Two minutes left, everyone!" he sang from the front of the room. I heard a loud scraping noise as Harry flew from his chair and toward the storage cabinet, where he started digging rather erratically. I glanced toward my potion, which had turned an unsettling shade of red. Maybe if I were as dedicated to potions as Harry was, I would be the top student. I snorted. That would never happen, ever.

"And time is UP!" Slughorn called out as everyone breathed out a sigh of relief and put down whatever they happened to be holding at that particular moment. I noticed Hermione trying to cram extra ingredients into her antidote as Slughorn made his way slowly around the room.

I, on the other hand, tried to steer clear from the nasty fumes my potion had started issuing from the cauldron.

"Merlin, Natalie, what the hell did you put in that thing?" Padma hissed at me rather nasally, as she had plugged her nose with her thumb and forefinger.

I leaned toward her, carefully avoiding the green fumes. "You know, I'm not really sure to be honest with you. I kind of just threw everything in there."

She glared at the potion as Slughorn gave up a huge laugh, clutching his belly as it jiggled. I looked up quickly, forgetting about the putrid smell and hacking quite loudly as I took a deep breath.

"You've got nerve, boy!" He boomed, holding a small rock into the air. "A bezoar, well that would certainly work against all these potions. Can't fault you there."

As he moved away, I caught Hermione glaring mutinously at her best friend, obviously livid about the turn of events.

The bell rang shortly after and, since Slughorn hadn't even bothered to glance at my potion, I vanished it quickly before packing up my stuff.

"Oh I forgot to tell you!" Padma shrieked gleefully as she reached into her bag and pulled out a wrinkled piece of parchment. "Did you see this in your common room?" She didn't bother waiting for an answer as she continued. "Well, they are having apparition lessons for the next twelve weeks starting next Wednesday! And we're both eligible to take it!"

I smiled back at her forcefully. She was obviously excited about this, but I, on the other hand, was not. The only thing worse than trying to find an antidote from an unknown potion was probably apparatiton and I found myself wondering if I could just drop out of school and join the muggle circus.

_Freak__Witch__Who__Was__Unable__to__Pass__Any__of__Her__Classes__and__Went__on__to__Fail__Wizarding__School_. That would probably be the best title for my act.

"I already signed us up, anyways," Padma went on, "the sign-up sheet was filling up so quickly and I didn't want us to miss our opportunity."

I groaned outwardly, but she chose to ignore me. At that moment, I happened to see Draco push himself through the crowd, looking around suspiciously as if to make sure he weren't being followed. I narrowed my eyes as I watched him leg it up the stairs.

I hastily excused myself from Padma and wove my way through the crowd, jogging up the staircase he had just taken. I caught a quick sight of blonde hair another staircase up from me and I picked up the pace, not wanting to lose him.

At the landing on the seventh floor, I saw another flash of blonde hair turn the corner to my left. I hitched my bag onto my shoulder and quietly made my way down the dimly lit hallway. As I turned the corner, expecting to see him still walking down the long corridor, I was immensely surprised when I saw nothing there.

I wrinkled my forehead in confusion as I continued my stare down the hall, thinking that maybe I had just missed him. There was no other corridor or trick door that branched off from here. I turned around slowly, very confused as to where he went, only to knock heads quite hard with another person who had just rounded the corner at a run.

"Ouch!" I exclaimed with a slight laugh as I pressed a hand to my head, trying to stop the throbbing sensation. I looked up to see Harry Potter doing the same, his eyes squeezed tightly shut in pain.

"Oh I'm so sorry," he muttered as he opened his eyes and looked into mine. "I didn't even see you standing there."

"Don't worry about it," I laughed as I took my hand off my head, seeing a few drops of blood on my palm. "Ah, that's a pretty good one."

Harry searched my face for a moment. "What are you doing up here, anyways? Isn't your common room in the dungeon?" The tone of his voice was accusing, but not harshly so. It was evident that he was just curious.

I pressed my palm to my head again. "It's going to sound silly, actually-" I started to say, but he cut me off quickly.

"You were following Malfoy, weren't you?"

I gaped at him in astonishment for a moment, before nodding my head slowly.

"Did you happen to see where he went?" he asked again, looking over my shoulder as if I were hiding him.

I shook my head slowly, as the pain was beginning to throb even more. "He just disappeared. It was the weirdest thing." I paused for a moment before side stepping around him. "I'm going to go to the hospital wing. This is actually quite painful."

He muttered another apology, this one sounding more sincere as I made my way down the corridor toward the staircase. Before I turned the corner, I glanced behind me to see Harry standing in front of the wall, staring in concentration.


	14. Chapter 14

**Happy Sunday to everyone!**

**I want to start off by giving an incredibly huge apology for the miscommunication (on my part of course) for the last author's note. I meant it to be a quirky (more so for my own amusement) and different author's note. My intention was never to make it sound like if I didn't get reviews, I wouldn't continue the story. I have loved every minute of writing Better Left Unsaid and I wouldn't want anyone to think that I would up and quit because of lack of reviewing.  
>Just the thought of readers taking time out of their day because they think my story is worth reading is the best encouragement and support I could imagine as a writer.<br>So thank you so much to every single one of you who has read my story, because you are very near and dear to my heart. **

**That being said, and with another apology on my part for not reading my author's notes more carefully before posting them, I give you chapter 14 of the series!**

Of course the week leading up to apparition lessons flew by, because when you dread something coming it always comes that much quicker. With forced resignation and a few threats of blackmail, I allowed Padma to drag me down to the great hall after classes on Wednesday.

I noticed the weather matched my mood almost to a T. As January quickly merged into February, the bitter, arctic conditions faded in the past as torrents of freezing rain took its place. Despite Padma's enthusiasm, I couldn't replicate her excitement and found myself standing in the middle of the great hall with a sour look on my face while a wooden hoop lay at my feet.

"Can't we just go back to the library? I'd rather be working on Snape's article right now," I hissed quietly to my best friend, but she shushed me quickly, turning her attention back toward the front of the hall where a small man with white hair that was oddly brighter than Draco's stood.

He began to speak with a shrill voice, but was drowned out quickly in our area by a harsh whispered fight.

I turned around in mild interest, only to see Malfoy scowling down at Crabbe, who seemed to have said something that set him off.

"Listen, you keep your nose-"

"Malfoy!" Professor McGonagall snapped, causing many of the students to whip around and stare at him. "Be quiet and pay attention!"

He took a step back, glaring furiously at Crabbe for making him receive the unwanted attention. All of the students, evidently bored by the lack of punishment, turned back toward the apparition teacher. Since I had no intention of mastering the art of apparition just yet, I let my gaze wonder around the large room. I must have missed something, because everyone started kicking their hoops around in order to have more room.

"Harry!" I heard a sharp whisper. "Where are you going?"

Malfoy had taken the chaos as an opportunity to continue his argument with Crabbe. I moved backward a few feet to be in a better eavesdropping range. I glanced behind me for a moment, noticing that Harry Potter had somehow wormed his way across the hall and had positioned himself directly behind Malfoy.

"It's none of your business what I'm up to!" Draco snapped down at Crabbe, who turned red in anger. "Do what you and Goyle are told and keep the lookout going!"

"I tell my friends what I'm up to if I want them to keep a lookout for me," Harry said offhandedly to the person next to him, who sent him an odd look and edged away subtly. He had said it loud enough for Draco to hear and I waited in great anticipation for a fight to break out between the two.

"Quiet!" a few voices from the front shouted and, much to my dismay, Draco only glowered mutinously at Harry as he turned slowly back to the front of the room.

I wasn't quick enough (nor did I care enough) to turn back toward the front of the hall. Draco caught my eye and winked, a smirk growing on his face as he broke eye contact. My face grew warm as I eased around.

"The important thing to remember when Apparating are the three D's!" the instructor was saying at the front. That's as far as my attention span allowed and I started a bitter staring contest with the wooden hoop at my feet, wishing it would turn into a giant hole and eat me alive.

"On my command! One- two-"

I looked up intrigued as everyone around me was staring in concentration at the center of their hoops. A few rows up, Padma's face had turned bright pink at her lack of breathing and I worried for a moment that she would pass out.

"Three!"

My feet rooted firmly to the ground, I watched in amusement as Harry, Draco, and many others tripped and stumbled over their hoops, obviously thinking they would get it on the first try.

I managed to catch Ernie Macmillian do a rather graceful leap into the middle of his hoop. He looked gleeful for a moment, before realizing that Dean Thomas was keeled over in laughter and he picked up his hoop (face beat red) and dragged it to a new spot across the hall.

"Are you at least going to try?" Malfoy whispered up to me after a few more failed attempts, one where he managed to do a hilarious spin that made him look like a rather good jazz dancer, and I shook my head casually.

"I'm having a much better learning experience by just watching," I replied.

And I was right, for a few minutes later there was a horrible screech of pain. A few rows to my right, Susan Bones had managed to splinch herself. Her left leg standing a few feet away from where she started and the rest of her body wobbled dangerously in the middle of her hoop.

I looked back toward Draco and pointed at the poor girl, who was surrounded by professors who quickly sorted her out. "That just reaffirmed my belief of walking everywhere, no matter how long it takes."

His face wrinkled in disgust as he took a step away from his hoop, apparently done practicing for the day.

The rest of the lesson went on for another hour. Draco and I did nothing for the rest of the time, except exchange looks of satisfaction when someone fell over. Seamus Finnigan stepped on the edge of his hoop, giving it the right amount of pressure to make it swing up and hit him dead on the nose.

That, and the splinching, were the two most interesting things that had happened in the lesson.

"How do you think I did?" Padma asked, hurrying up to me with a bright smile on her face. "I think I mastered the concept, at least. I may have apparated a few hairs on my eyebrows by accident, because I feel like they are a little bit thinner, don't you?"

I snorted in laughter as she continued her one-sided conversation about how great she thought the practice was.

We made it to the great hall in time for me to swallow back a few chunks of steak and bite or two of mashed potatoes before I was hurrying down the hallway toward the library in hopes of finishing my potions essay to avoid yet another detention.

I claimed the table that was the farthest away from the door, trying to avoid distractions that would either come in the door or that would give me an excuse to sprint out of the library as fast as my legs could carry me.

I was just starting to pull my potions book out when I caught Draco out of the corner of my eye perusing in the restricted section, a signed piece of parchment in hand. I narrowed my eyes at him as I got up from the table, leaving my stuff behind, and made my way through the book shelves and into the back end of the library.

He stopped suddenly to pull a book down from the shelf in front of him, sighing loudly. I bolted around into the isle next to his, trying to make it look like I wasn't following him. A let out an audible screech as a few books mysteriously fell from eye level onto the floor at my feet.

"What are you following me for, Garcia?" Malfoy asked in a bored tone as he peered through the hole he made by pushing the books off the bookshelf.

I shifted uncomfortably. "I'm not following you! I'm trying to find a book, just like you are."

He smirked at me before reaching into the hole and pulling a book off the shelf nearest to my head, making the hole a few inches wider. He glanced down at the book for a moment. "So you're researching the different potions to brew in order to make a male erection last longer?"

"Y-yes," I stammered out as I shot a nervous look toward another book in front of me. I cursed myself for running into the ONLY isle in the ENTIRE library that had books about potions in sexual performance. Next time, I needed to be more stealth and observant of the isles I ran into. Seemingly thinking the same thing, Draco smirked as he gestured for me to wait there, as he was going to come around.

"Why do all of our conversations end up based around sex?" Draco asked as he sauntered toward me, a book tucked under his left arm. I looked down at it pointedly as he shifted it away from my view.

"What's that for?" I asked, ignoring his question and the conversation that would surely arise from it. Anything Malfoy was trying to hide from plain view was interesting to me.

His smirk turned quickly into a sneer as he turned around to walk away from me. Evidently, this was not a topic up for conversation. I, however, being the quick-reflex woman that I am, reached out and snatched the book from under his arm, flicking through it swiftly so I could get the general idea before he tried to take it back.

Which he did a few seconds later, but I tucked the book into my stomach, folding my arms around it in protection.

"Come on, Garcia," he said in a rather frustrated tone, "just give it back, will you?"

I managed to walk a few feet in that crouched position before he sighed and wrapped his arms around my body, trying to knock the book from my grasp. I held on as tight as I could, but he was stronger than I realized.

"What are you doing with a book about poisons anyways?" I managed to huff out before squealing in surprise as he lifted me into the air, my back pressed against his chest, as he tried to shake the book from my grasp.

"This…is…real…ly…un…ne…ces…sary," I stammered out between shakes. He placed me back onto the floor, but kept his arms wrapped around my body. Something stirred in the pit of my stomach as I was hit with the realization of our close proximity. "Malfoy, what is this?"

He let go of me as if I had burned him, taking a step back as he looked down at me. "What do you mean?"

I blew a strand of hair off my face, still holding tightly onto the book, as I replied, "You know what I mean."

He sighed in defeat, shaking his head slowly. "Just give me the book back."

"Tell me what this is."

"Just give it back, Garcia."

"I won't until you tell me what this is."

"You are being incredibly immature about this entire situation."

"Watch how immature I can really get."

We stood in defiance, glaring at each other. I was going to stand my ground, dammit, and force him to talk to me. Evidently this book was an important one and I was willing to wager whatever he needed with it on our conversation.

"Do you know how irritating you are?" he said after a moment of silence. I continued with my glare of defiance, refusing to relinquish the book.

"Don't change the subject."

He ran his fingers through his hair and I could tell his frustrations were running mighty high. "No, really, you evidently don't understand how irritating you are. You're a pain in the ass, you're annoying, you're incredibly immature. The laxative thing? I would have done that five years ago. Not now."

I looked up at him in shock, not expecting him to go on a rant about all the things he disliked about me.

He seemed to have more to say, though, because he kept on going. "You can't even brew a simple potion nor do a simple spell. How the hell did you make it into NEWT classes? It's beyond me. It really is. And you know what's worse?"

Anger clouding my mind, I withdrew the book from my grasp. I took a few steps closer to him, tears filling my eyes, but I refused to let them drop. I would not let him see me cry. I was a fool to think that he would make a good friend. Tigers really don't change their stripes.

"I don't even want to know," I whispered harshly as I shoved the book into his hands, where he held onto it out of a knee-jerk response. I pushed past him with my shoulder, ready to storm out of the library.

I hadn't even gotten a few feet away when I heard something drop loudly onto the stone floor and hands grab onto my hips, pulling me back. I spun around, readying my fist to make contact with whatever part of his body I happened to find first when he grabbed my closed-fist with one hand, holding onto it tightly.

"You didn't let me finish," he growled as he held my lower back, because I was trying to wriggle away.

"Malfoy, let go of me or I'm going to scream," I said in a calm, but deadly tone.

I could imagine the smirk on his face when he mimicked my voice by saying, "You need to stop walking away from me mid-conversation."

That only riled me up more, and I took my free hand and punched him as hard as I could in the chest, but he didn't even flinch.

"Merlin, Natalie, will you stop be crazy for a minute so I can tell you that the worst part about it is that I like you?" he snapped in frustration as he removed his hand from my lower back to grab onto my other hand in order to keep me from punching him again.

I went slack, in shock of what he said. "Wh-what?"

He sighed. "I like you," he said slowly, "as in more than a friend, but not at the in love stage." He let go of my hands as soon as he was sure I wasn't going to go into defense mode and hit him.

"You what?"

"Geeze, Nat, don't make me say it again," he groaned in irritation as he looked down at me in a way I had never seen him look at anyone. "This is really hard for me to get out, so can you at least try to grasp what I'm saying the first time?"

I crossed my arms over my chest. "Well how romantic of you," I retorted, my tone dripping in sarcasm. "Why don't we just light the candles and-"

He cut me off by grabbing my face and planting his lips onto mine. His lips were warm and soft, urgent even, against mine. I deepened the kiss as I wrapped my arms around his neck. Without breaking apart, he bent down and lifted me up and I quickly wrapped my legs around his waist. He pressed me up against the nearest bookshelf as he broke his lips away from mine, trailing kisses down my neck.

I found his lips, breaking apart again after a few seconds. We looked at each other in shock for a moment.

"What does this mean?" I whispered to him. He set me back on the floor, but didn't remove his hands from my waist. I breathed in and out deeply, waiting for a response.

"This is a really bad time for me to start caring about someone," he muttered, mostly to himself. He looked at me, his eyes searching mine. I stared back at him, wanting to understand where all this was coming from.

It was obvious from the kiss what his feelings were and, from the way I had reacted, I could no longer deny the attraction I felt toward him. At the beginning of the year I hated him and he hated me…but now? I rested my head on the bookshelf, still staring at him in thought.

"Listen," he whispered as he rested his forehead against mine, "I want to be with…you." The words seemed unfamiliar to him and I could tell he was having a hard time getting them out. "But, it's too dangerous right now."

I scoffed at him, pulling away from his grasp. "You kiss me like that. Tell me you want to be with me. But then tell me it's too dangerous?"

"You don't understand," he growled out in anger, "if they found out they could kill you."

I took a step back, glaring at him. "Don't give me the 'it's not you, it's me' speech. I understand. It's perfectly clear to me."

He grabbed my waist again and pulled me close to him. He kissed me gently, butterflies erupting in my stomach as he placed his hand on one side of my neck.

"You don't get it. I want this to be a secret. Between you and me."

I looked up at him. "So you can pretend to be with Pansy in public and see me on the side? I think you're crazy."

"No! So I can protect you the best way I can! Why do you have to be so stubborn? Can't you listen to anyone but yourself for once in your life?"

I shut my mouth tightly.

"I want to see you. And only you. But that means that no one else can know. Do you think you can do that?"

"I-Draco…Malfoy-" It hit me like a slap in the face. I liked him, more than I should. I probably liked him more deep down than I was willing to admit. But, a part of me wanted to give this a try. Another part of me was terrified of the consequences and what could happen if other people found out.

The part that liked him, though, didn't care. And I found myself nodding and agreeing as he gave me a true, genuine smile as he bent down to kiss me once again.


	15. Chapter 15

**Nothing new to report here!  
>As always, I absolutely adore my readers and all the encouragement, support, and input that is given to me. You guys rock!<br>Enjoy chapter 15! **

February turned into March with relatively no complications, except for the torrents of freezing rain turning into torrents of freezing rain accompanied by howling winds.

Apparition lessons didn't seem to get an easier. While I still had my feet planted firmly on the stone floor, I watched as others splinched themselves and, sometimes even, leave pieces of clothing behind. My personal favorite was when Susan Bones (poor girl, everything happened to her) apparated right out of her pants, reveling triumphantly in the middle of her wooden hoop before realizing the only thing covering her bottom half were rather large, flowered underwear.

I'd like to think I had convinced Padma to not try apparition for a week or so, but that faltered when she had finally succeed, only managing to leave behind both her eyebrows.

I was surprised, and of course incredibly happy, to see how easily Draco and I fell into our secret relationship.

By day, Padma and I hung out with her Ravenclaw friends (her own crush on Terry Boot increasing in magnitude as the days wore on) in the library. They finished up homework and studied for far away exams while I flicked Every Flavor Beans at unsuspecting first years that had the misfortune of passing our table.

By night, Draco and I prowled the hallways, finding empty alcoves and staircases to slip into for a quick (and sometimes not so quick) make-out session or otherwise talking about everything under the sun. I was even more so surprised at how normal he was when he wasn't around other people as a whole. Though, he was still a jerk and he was still stubborn, but he was my stubborn jerk.

It seemed that Draco and I's relationship worked out better during the night anyways, for sometimes he would disappear between classes, during breaks, or even during class time with Crabbe and Goyle. I would have no luck in finding him, much to my dismay, and it almost seemed that he disappeared from the castle entirely.

A week after this behavior started, I tried to shake it off my shoulders. It was a mighty huge castle and I wouldn't be able to pinpoint his location at every moment of every day. Not only that, but I refused to let myself become a crazy, stalker girlfriend and, when he disappeared for those times, I found other ways of occupying my attention by picking fights with Blaise or daydreaming of ways to switch Professor Snape's pumpkin juice with skele-gro at dinner and think longingly at the best outcomes of that situation.

The only thing fishier than Draco's behavior the last few weeks was Harry's, as he had become incredibly suspicious of Draco's whereabouts, even cornering me at least twice a week asking where he was at that particular moment.

I always looked at him with concern and asked if he was alright, which caused him to apologize before running off to join Ron for the next class. It seemed as though he wasn't that sorry, however, because three days later he would be at it again.

As Harry's suspicions of Draco increased, my own suspicions of Harry increased. He seemed very edgy as of lately and I had a sneaky feeling that he somehow knew about the gallivanting Draco and I did at night. Sometimes during Transfiguration, I would let loose whatever animal I just so happened to be working on that day to see if I could catch Harry in the act of doing something strange.

He usually folded up an old looking piece of parchment quickly while eyeing my guiltily until I passed by.

The next Hogsmeade trip had been cancelled too, much to everyone's indignation.

"You really can't blame them, I guess," Padma had been saying at lunch the day after it was announced, "after what happened to Katie-"

She trailed off as we both glanced over to Leann at the Gryffindor table, who hadn't been the same cheerful girl ever since the attack on her best friend.

"Any word on her?" I asked as I perused through a new copy of The Daily Prophet, wrinkling my nose at news of the disappearances of two muggle families and a few wizards/witches with the same last names of some students that went to Hogwarts.

Padma shook her head, glancing up at the ceiling, which was portraying a dark, cloudy sky that morning. "No, she still hasn't woken up. I know they transferred her to a long-term ward in St. Mungo's a few weeks ago. That's the last I heard though."

I scanned the Slytherin table, not really surprised when I didn't see Malfoy sitting there doing bad impressions of Harry. I shrank down a little in defeat, hoping that I would at least see him before Padma and I began our Saturday ritual of spending ridiculously large amounts of time in the library.

Padma half-dragged me out of the Great Hall a few minutes later, commenting on how I had been acting quite distant the last few weeks. She then asked if I was pregnant and I laughed while hitting her playfully, denying it whole-heartedly.

Draco and I haven't gone that far and I had a feeling we wouldn't for awhile.

"Oh, she has extra potions with him. I promise, Romilda will be there," I overhead Harry saying to an extremely hopeful looking Ron Weasley as we passed by them in the hallway. I saw Harry mouth the words 'love potion' to Padma, who had been eyeing Ron in concern.

I fought the urge to laugh at his predicament. Smuggling a love potion into the castle was truly a classic and I found myself congratulating whoever had succeeded in sneaking one to Ron. It put my mind on a whir of all the countless possibilities there would be if I had the nerve to smuggle one in. Which, of course, I did.

I followed Padma through the winding corridors of the castle toward the library. Just as we turned the corner, I ran headlong into Draco, who caught me quickly around the waist as I stumbled and almost fell over. I noticed he was looking pretty attractive this morning in his jeans and long sleeved shirt.

"Watch where you're walking, stupid muggle lover," he snapped at me, winking subtly as I mustered up the best sneer I could manage and pushed him off me.

"Make like a ferret and bounce," I retorted as I backed away, smiling slightly when Draco brushed his hand against mine as he passed.

"Glad to see the two of you fighting hasn't changed at least," Padma sighed as we continued on our trek toward the library and I felt a twinge of guilt settle into my gut. Keeping my promise to Draco meant lying to my best friend and I couldn't help but feel angry at myself for keeping something so huge from her.

I shook away the feeling as we settled at the only open table near the double doors in the library that led out to the main hallway. Since the Hogsmeade trip was cancelled and the weather outside was terrible, it seemed that everyone all of a sudden had the ambition to do homework.

Twenty minutes in and I had read the same sentence in my Charms book seven times, because I had kept zoning out midway through. I glanced up in boredom, a blonde something catching the corner of my eye.

I looked around to see Draco, who was standing near the double door. He gestured for me to follow him and I quickly told Padma that I needed to hit the bathroom.

Draco's lips caught mine as soon as we had reached an empty alcove at the end of the hallway. He deepened the kiss after a minute and I went with it, despite it being the middle of the day and in plain sight. The warm feeling I always got from being near him spread up my spine, sending shivers down my arms and legs.

He smirked down at me (I had only managed to get a genuine smile out of him a few times) as I smiled, wrapping my arms around him.

A loud commotion at the end of the hall caused us to break apart hastily. We both watched as a gaggle of people, Harry and Professor Slughorn included, rushed down the hall toward the hospital wing. I gasped in astonishment as I recognized the person they were carrying to be Ron Weasley, who was unconscious with foam caked around his lips.

"What the-?" Draco said as he wrinkled his forehead in confusion. I watched as his eyes narrowed in on something that was dangling from Harry's left hand. He turned back toward me, kissing me softly on the lips again. "How far do you think you could stick that little nose where it doesn't belong?"

I gazed up at him, confused.

"I want you to figure out what happened to Weasebee," he drawled on as he sidestepped me and made his way quickly toward the opposite end of the hallway.

I glared at his back, not wanting to do the small task he had set for me. Ron was Padma's sister's best friend's boyfriend, though so I figured getting some answers wouldn't be too hard.

Plus, it would stall my having to do charm's homework by quite a bit.

I rushed back into the library, where I hastily explained the situation to Padma, who looked alarmed for moment before rushing to pack up her things and follow me toward the hospital wing. We were lucky enough to meet Lavender and Parvati on the way, so it wouldn't look suspicious if we just happened to show up.

"Won-won!" Lavender cried hysterically as she threw herself on top of Ron's unconscious body. Hermione and I made eye contact for a moment before breaking it for fear of laughing at her intensity. I silently made a pact with myself to never sound like that when I was around Draco.

Ever.

"What happened?" Padma asked quietly as she put her arm around her sister, who was obviously shaken up. No one had paid attention to her question, though, as all eyes were settled on Madam Pince who was working quickly to revive the redhead.

"All in all, not one of Ron's best birthdays," one of the twins said as they both trudged in, taking a place on either side of Ron's bed.

"What happened anyways?" the other one asked gloomily and I sidestepped Padma in an attempt to move closer to the conversation so I could hear the story a little better.

"Someone is obviously trying to take down the Gryffindor quidditch team," I commented. Harry threw me a dark look (possibly wondering what I was doing there), but I merely shrugged. Katie Bell was a chaser and now Ron Weasley.

"Wood might have done it if he could have gotten away with it."

Harry, ignoring the jibes about his team, took a deep breath before diving into the story of the love potion and how they visited Professor Slughorn to get the antidote. Slughorn offered them both a drink of Rosmerta's mead, where Ron took the first sip and crashed instantly to the floor. He shoved a bezoar in Ron's mouth and clamped it shut, giving it ample opportunity to work its magic.

"So the poison was in the drink?" one of the twins asked Harry, who nodded his head in reply.

"It's actually in this," Harry added, holding up the bottle of Mead that he had been carrying down the hallway. "I think it was Mal-" He was cut off suddenly by an angry look from Hermione.

My breath caught in my throat as I recognized the bottle. It was the exact same bottle that Draco had been carrying around when I saw him in Diagon Alley.

Accompanied with him researching poisons a few weeks ago in the library, the two and two added up in my mind. Harry was watching my facial expression carefully and I managed to make it neutral before I looked back up at him.

The few people surrounding Ron's bed were in a heated debate about whether the poison was meant for Slughorn or Dumbledore. That reason, along with Harry still studying my face, gave me a good excuse to back slowly away from the group, weave my way through the hospital wing, and into the main hall.

Once I was out of sight, I took a deep, hysterical breath. There was no way that Draco was responsible for this. No way.

Madam Rosmerta sold many, many bottles of Mead that looked exactly like the one Harry had carried into the hospital wing. Just because there was a coincidence didn't necessarily make it true.

But what if it was?

Draco was already a prime suspect of something in Harry's mind (it was obvious from just now in the hospital wing) and a few situations were already starting to point toward him. Of course, Harry wasn't aware of the note on the necklace I had found nor the almost confession about Katie Bell I had wrangled from Draco.

He would go beserk if he knew that I knew about the bottle of Mead combined with Draco researching poisons in the library only a few short weeks ago. But were all these things worthy of me telling someone? What if I got Draco in trouble because of a few misunderstandings?

I also realized that only six months ago I would have had no problem turning over my information to Professor Dumbledore and walking away without a second thought. If everything Harry thought was true and I didn't say anything, would that make me a culprit in whatever dark and twisted situation Draco had gotten himself into?

Consumed in my thoughts, I hadn't exactly been paying attention to where I was going until I was out of the castle and standing on the first step on the outdoor side of the front doors. Shaking myself out of my stupor, I thought back on how I had ended up here and, once grasping the fact that I wouldn't remember, decided to make the most of it.

The steady drip of raindrops that rolled off the slanted rooftop above my head blended in with the small splashed my sneakers made in the puddles gathering between the large stones. I took cover for a moment under a gargoyle as I contemplated the rain.

Sighing, I dug into my bag and pulled out a roll of unused parchment that I was planning on using for my Trasfiguation essay later that night, but probably wouldn't use anyways. I stuck the newly unrolled parchment over my head, heading out from my cover under the gargoyle and into the rain.

The thick stream of rainwater started to pick up. My sneakers were soaked through within a couple steps, my hands began to numb as the cold water battered against them in a near constant rhythm. Still, the pitter-patter of the rainwater hitting the stone sidewalk was soothing to me and I continued my walk toward the stone bridge. The sidewalk ended for a moment, as the weeds had grown through the cracks between the stone and they bent beneath my feet.

Ten minutes later, I was cursing myself silently for not staying in the warm, dry confines of the castle. But, I was almost to the stone bridge and I could always dry myself off with my wand once I was under the rooftop that covered it.

The wooden rails that lined the bridge before it set off over the canyon were bloated with rain water and the lake emitted a springy smell of moss and fish.

I shook as much rain water out of my dark curls as I could, flipping my hair behind my back so it was out of my face. I was sure that I looked like a drowned rat, but who would bother coming all this way out here in this downpour?

"Natalie!"

I stood corrected.

I glanced to my left, hitching myself up onto one of the stone barriers that sided each end of the bridge, and saw Draco jogging down the lawn toward me, bending his head against the rain.

"Did you get the story?" he asked as he wiped the water from his face.

I bit my lip for a moment. Did I tell him the truth? If he was the culprit of this attack, would he be mad or upset that it failed? If I lied, I'm sure he would figure out in the end, but it really wouldn't matter if he wasn't the attacker.

I chose to go with the latter, convincing myself superficially that, deep down, I knew he really couldn't be the reason all these bad things were happening to students.

"Oh, um, he was cursed in the hallway. Some sort of backfiring jinx sort of like that slug one in second year," I said slowly, trying to come up with a believable lie. He relaxed in relief and, for that moment, I relaxed too.

"What was Harry doing with that Mead then?" he questioned me as I jumped off the stone wall, as water had started to seep through the cracks.

I stopped suddenly, looking up at Draco with narrowed eyes. "How do you know it was mead?"

He shrugged casually. "I saw the bottle."

I saw the bottle too, but Harry was moving so fast that I didn't have time to read and analyze the label. In fact, I had no idea what it even was until he held it up for everyone to see in the hospital wing. I nodded with a faint smile on my face, choosing to believe another story from Draco that I knew was a lie.

By dinner, everyone was whispering about the attack on Ron Weasley.

"Do you think he's going to die?"  
>"No, I heard that Hermione saved him with a kiss."<br>"He's not dating Hermione, you idiot, he's dating that other hot Gryffindor!"

I broke off from Draco a few hallways from the great hall, making my way through the gossiping crowd toward the Ravenclaw table. Padma pushed her book bag off the bench, making room for me to sidle in between her and Anthony Goldstein.

"Any news on Ron?" I asked as I piled beef and potatoes onto my plate. Padma shook her head, her mouth full of food.

"No, but there are two people that are on each side of the spectrum about it," she said as soon as she swallowed, "you missed the hysterical Lavender Brown almost have a screaming match with Harry about him not telling her about the poisoning as soon as it happened."

We both peered around Terry Boot, who was sitting directly in front of us, to sneak a look at Lavender across the hall. She was staring moodily down at her almost empty plate, stabbing at it forcefully with her fork while mumbling to herself in anger. Whenever Parvati tried to talk to her she only snapped back, obviously not wanting to make conversation.

I raised my eyebrows as I settled back into my seat. "I always thought she was mentally unstable. What was the other end of the spectrum?"

"Oh yeah!" Padma exclaimed, setting down her fork. "I almost forgot. So Cormac showed up a few minutes after the almost-screaming match and basically drilled Harry about who was going to be playing keeper for the next game. Evidently, he's a fine chaser, but keeper is more so his specialty."

I snorted into my potatoes, fully believing her rendition of the story. That sounded exactly like something Cormac would say.

"Another weird thing happened," Padma added on after a moment as she played with her food in thought. I could tell she was debating with herself about telling me this. "Before I came into the great hall, I mean. Blaise Zabini has never talked to me before, ever, so I thought it was kind of weird when he came up and asked what had happened to Ron."

I felt my body freeze. Blaise had asked Padma what was going on…and Blaise's best friend…

"Did you tell him?" I asked casually, trying to keep the shakiness out of my voice.

"Well, of course I did, Nat. What kind of gossip do you think I am if I hide things from everyone?"

I shifted my gaze toward the Slytherin table, only to see Blaise whispering something quietly to Draco. It was evident that whatever he was saying, he didn't want it overheard, because both of their heads were bent toward each other. Draco snapped his head up in surprise as Blaise nodded grimly.

I felt the blood drain from my face as I scooted farther down in my seat, trying to use Terry Boot as a human shield.

I didn't move fast enough, though, because Draco caught my gaze- a dark, angry look in his eyes- as he mouthed 'you lied.'


	16. Chapter 16

**I have to admit, this was one of the hardest chapters for me to write and I'm not really sure why. I had gotten up to eight pages not once, not twice, but three times before deleting the entire thing and beginning from scratch.  
>It just wasn't flowing right with me, so I am incredibly relieved to be posting this right now!<br>Happy reading, I hope you enjoy, and don't forget to review!**

My patience with Draco had fallen quite drastically throughout the week following Ron's poisoning. I had understood the first day and half of the second day why he would be upset. I did lie to him after all. After day three and day four, however, his insults only became more original and unique (some of them even surprised me) and by day six Padma was asking what I did to piss him off so greatly.

"Oh you know, just breathing the same air as he is," I responded coolly as I glanced down the Slytherin table at him, where he was feigning passing out in an attempt to mock Harry Potter once again. It wasn't exactly a lie, as I wouldn't have been at all surprised if my presence in general set him off.

She made a noise that seemed half pitying and half amused as she loaded her plate with bacon and eggs. I gazed around the Great Hall, where students clad in yellow or maroon chatted happily with one another.

It was the second to last game before the quidditch final and I couldn't have been gladder that the season was almost over. After my brief announcing stint (which grew in its greatness every time I thought about it), everyone had continuously asked me whether I was announcing the next game, explaining that if I was they would not attend. I glared at a small first year who had just asked. He hustled back to his seat with a beat red face, but I did happen to catch another first year handing him three sickles from across the table.

As Hufflepuff was filled with students who were mostly without backbones, the general animosity surrounding this game was very much subdued compared to what it would be in a few weeks. Slytherins and Ravenclaws (even some Hufflepuffs for that matter) already knew the outcome of the game, so no one really bothered to ramp up the hostility.

I did have to admit- after a long winter of snow and ice, the cool, almost spring weather was going to be a nice change. The sky directly surrounding the grounds were relatively clear and even the rain strayed away from the castle, though the threat of dark clouds loomed just over the mountain tops.

Padma nudged me in the ribs, causing me to jut out my core to the other side in surprise. "I forgot to tell you," she muttered quickly and quietly, as Cormac McLaggen had oddly turned his attention onto me and was headed in my direction, "that Hermione and Cormac are no longer seeing each other and rumor has it that he has set his sights on you again."

I groaned outwardly as I watched him saunter over, completely oblivious to the glares everyone at the Slytherin table was sending him. He smiled down at me, but my face remained smooth and emotionless.

"I brought you this (he held out his quidditch practice shirt) and I wanted you to support a real quidditch player this time around," he said as an oh-so-humble grin appeared on his lips.

I managed to sneak a glance over to Draco, who was staring down at his breakfast plate in great concentration, but was very obviously listening to the conversation.

"I think I would rather do the dirty with Filch while chained to the ceiling by my wrists," I replied as I pushed his hand that held the shirt away from me, "while an ogre bashed my brains in with a club."

He chortled something about missing my sense of humor the past few months.

"Yeah, mudblood Granger can get pretty boring, eh, McLaggen?" Malfoy interjected into the conversation, a smirk brushing his lips accompanied with a steely glint in his eye. I recognized that particular look as jealousy, but I doubted that anyone else would read into it.

"You know a lot about Granger too, then Malfoy?" Cormac responded with a laugh and I hung my head in hands in embarrassment for him. He was, once again, oblivious to the fact that everyone was laughing at him and not with him.

He turned his attention back toward me as he tried to shove the shirt in my hands again, but only managed to push some bacon off my plate and onto the floor while smearing fried egg across the table.

"Merlin, McLaggen go away!" I finally exclaimed after a few failed attempts at subtle hints. "Hell would have to freeze over, You-Know-Who himself threaten to kill me, AND every single person on this planet would have to die before I would wear that damn shirt!"

I heard Draco turn his chuckle into a cough as Cormac muttered along the lines of anyone would want to wear his shirt and he only asked certain girls. A twinge of guilt set into my stomach, but was replaced quickly by humor when he sauntered over to the Ravenclaw table and tried to pawn off his shirt onto an unfortunate fourth year.

"Finally got rid of your boyfriend, Garcia?" Malfoy smirked at me, a playful look in his eyes. This was the first time in a week he had decided I was worth the time to even glance at, so I just glared at him before returning to my breakfast.

Padma and I shoveled down the rest of our eggs (I chugged a pot of coffee in less than ten seconds) and ten minutes later we were quickly making our way down toward the quidditch pitch, following a great migration of students whooping and shrieking with glee.

"Yeah, like I'm going to tell you, because it's your business, Potter," I saw Draco sneer at Harry. A small girl next to him let out a string of high-pitched giggles. I wrinkled my head in confusion for a few reasons.

One, Harry should have already been at the quiddich pitch warming up with his team. I checked the time on Padma's wristwatch. The game was slated to start in twenty minutes and he was a vital part of said game.

Two, I had never seen that girl standing next to Draco in my life. She was short and pudgy with two, brown braided pigtails steaming off the back of her head. I actually imagined that's what Crabbe would look like if he was a girl.

Third, I was surprised that Harry was still on about getting to the bottom of the "great Malfoy mystery," as most of the time nothing seemed to hold his attention span for long periods of time unless it had to do with you-know-who.

My gut squirmed with discomfort at that thought. Maybe Harry did think Draco was in on something with you-know-who…

And lastly, I wondered briefly where Malfoy was off to on this beautiful, quidditch filled day. He never missed an opportunity to conduct a song or two against the Gryffindor team, but he was headed in the opposite direction of the crowd, seemingly uninterested.

"Watch where you're going you stupid muggle!" Pansy screeched in pain, as I had just stomped on her foot. By accident, of course. Padma muffled a laugh, but ushered me quickly away from Pansy, as she had just started to pull out her wand. I was slightly pleased with myself that even my subconscious wanted to do harm to pug-face Pansy.

A dazzling flash of sunlight shone quickly from behind a puffy cloud and I had to shield my eyes as the brightness reflected into them. I heard from a distance as Luna's lion hat roared quite loudly and I imagined the teachers jumping in surprise, as there was a rumor going around that she would be the next person to announce.

We situated ourselves comfortably in the Gryffindor stands with Terry and Anthony, as we had already tried the Slytherin side, but we had only gotten unwelcome glares and jeers from Slytherin members who didn't particularly care about the game, but very obviously didn't want us there.

"What a classy house you're a part of," Anthony joked to me as the Slytherin stands broke out in another rendition of Weasley is our King, despite the fact that he wasn't playing that game.

I grinned back at him. "Oh, we're only the best."

The game kicked off with relative ease and I found myself actually enjoying the company of Anthony and Terry, who were supporting Gryffindor with hilarious gusto.

"And now Harry Potter's having an argument with his keeper," Luna said quite calmly as the crowd in our vicinity cracked up laughing, "I don't think that'll help him find the snitch, but maybe it's a clever ruse…"

We all cheered at Luna's commentating. I was pleased to discover that my heart felt lighter in this moment than it had the entire week. All my anxiety about Katie, Ron, and Draco lifted off my shoulders. Harry spun around on his broom, letting a colorful stream of profanities fly and we all cheered again at his vocabulary.

"Pst, hey, Garcia!" I jumped in shock as something poked me in the back. I whipped around, surprised to see Draco standing behind me (surrounded by jeering and glaring Gryffindors, Ravenclaws, and Hufflepuffs) beckoning for me to follow him.

I excused myself from the stands, my stomach falling in disappointment as Harry (who had been yelling at McLaggen again for having a beater's bat) was knocked clean off his broom when McLaggen swung at a bludger and missed.

I couldn't help but notice the gleeful expression on Draco's face, who watched Harry fall from fifty feet with a sickening happiness.

"What do you want, Malfoy?" I asked coldly as we made our way down the back stairs of the stands. I crossed my arms over my chest in hopes that he would realize I wasn't very happy with him. Luckily, he did.

"Why are you in a bad mood with me all of a sudden?" Draco exclaimed in frustration, as a genuine look of confusion donned his face. I sighed softly.

"I'm tired of the hot and cold of this whole thing. I'm sorry I lied to you, but really, you're acting like the fires of hell are raining down on us."

He snorted at my analogy, pulling me into a hug as he rested his chin on the top of my head. "I'm not going to apologize, because you were wrong (I scoffed at him), but I was trying to focus on something and the look on your face at breakfast kept flashing in my mind. I was hoping that we could spend time together in the daylight for once."

I put a hand up to his forehead, mocking taking his temperature. "Are you sick? Are you feeling okay? You're asking me to spend time together?"

He pushed my hand away and started to back away slowly. "Fine by me if you don't want to, just thought I would ask."

I hesitated for a moment. Padma, Terry, and Anthony were probably expecting me to come back, but it wasn't everyday (especially lately) that Malfoy sought me out to spend time together. I lurched forward, following him up the grassy lawn toward the castle.

He smirked as he put an arm around my shoulders, my skin heating up in excitement at his touch. "This actually works out real well," I commented lightly, "as I wanted you to answer some questions about my father."

When he didn't say anything, I took that as my cue to continue.

"Really, I wanted you to tell me more of what he did," I said quietly. We entered the front doors of the castle and turned toward the Slytherin common room. "I want to know why he got sent to Azkaban."

Malfoy sighed, probably realizing that I wasn't going to let it go. I glanced up hopefully at him.

"I don't know the details," he started slowly as we made our way down a narrow staircase, "because I was pretty young, but I do know that he became a death eater when he first moved here. Actually, I think that was the reason he moved here, I'm not sure though."

My heart beat quickened. I hadn't actually expected him to answer my questions.

"The rest is a blur, but he did get an assignment to kill three aurors who were in charge of catching death eaters and throwing them in prison. Turns out he got a little carried away and tried to off their families too."

I shuddered in horror. The man I knew, the man I grew up with, the man that RAISED me would never have hurt anyone. I had a hard time believing he voluntarily would do something like that.

My face must have given away my thoughts. After Draco muttered the password to open the common room door, he told me that he wasn't sure what had happened, but something in Spain set him on a path to the dark lord.

The common room was clear of people. The eerie silence added in to the creepiness that already set in the room and I was glad to be there with someone else, no matter whom that someone else was.

"What did you pull me in here for anyways?" I asked as he slumped down onto the nearest couch. "It's so nice outside and we're stuck in the dungeons surrounded by water." I gestured dramatically toward the large window that looked out in the lake, where the giant squid was staring in at us with an expression that I was sure was mild interest.

"This," he smirked as he pulled me down onto the couch, so I was sitting on his lap. I smiled against his lips as he kissed me gently, cupping one of his hands around my neck.

"You know," I said mischievously, "there is no one in here right now." The smirk on his face grew into a small, wicked smile. He grabbed the back of my head, pulling my lips down to his as his kiss grew hungrier.

I snuck my hands up his shirt, feeling each muscle contract with my touch. As I went to pull the shirt over his head, he stopped me quickly, pushing me so I was sitting up on his lap.

"What?" I asked confusedly as he pressed his palms into his eyes, leaning his head back into the couch. He groaned in frustration.

"I-I just can't," he finally said after a moment. He rubbed his left forearm in thought as he stared up at me. "I'm sorry, but I just can't."

I shrugged my shoulders, flopping down onto the couch next to him, so my feet were dangled across his lap. The giant squid had moved away from the window, but was replaced by a grindylow that had attached itself to the glass via its large, wide mouth.

"I know you did not drag me down here to try and get some action," I lamented as I turned my head lazily toward him. He raised his eyebrows in question. "What did you really drag me down here for?"

He chuckled quietly and if I hadn't be sitting right next to him, the rest of the room in silence, I probably wouldn't have believed that I heard it. "I can't spend time with you? There are a few big things happening around here soon and I just wanted to see you before everything changed."

The last part of the sentence peaked my interest. I sat up slightly, resting on my elbows as I contemplated him with narrow eyes. It was so unlike him to slip in any hints of what he had been doing on our time apart, as he usually kept that bottled up. "What's going to happen around here? What do you mean something big?"

It must have been an accident, for his cheeks tinged a slight pink and his gaze immediately became steely and cold- evidently this was not a conversation piece.

"None of your business, Garcia. Get your nose out of it."

I glared at him for a moment before swinging my legs off the couch. After another moment of my own bodily confusion, resulting in a weird twisting movement to get my limbs untangled, I stood in front of him with my hands on my hips.

"Fine, if that's how you're going to behave about the whole thing," I snapped, stamping my foot rather immaturely. That put a smirk on his face, which only fueled my anger. "I have better things to do. See you around, Malfoy."

He sat in the same position on the couch, gaping like a fish as I stormed from the common room to find Padma.

"Where did you go? I was looking for you after the game- they had to take Harry to the hospital wing, by the way and Hufflepuff actually won! And what's wrong with you?" she asked in a rather hasty voice as we made our way toward the great hall, where everyone was congregating for the post-game get together.

"I had to go to the bathroom," I lied smoothly, "and the one by the quidditch pitch was kind of dirty and gross."

She accepted this excuse with no further questions and I assumed that she believed me. It really had amazed me lately how far I would go to protect my secret from the world. I was lying to my best friend. And for what? I still didn't know what kind of thing this was with Malfoy, as it hadn't come up in conversation in awhile and I sure didn't want to be the one to bring it up.

And, to be quite honest, when I was out of the vicinity of Malfoy I really felt rather miserable. I either couldn't stop thinking about the Katie bell or Ronald Weasley incident and how he may or may not be involved in it or his hot and cold behavior towards me- one minute being sweet as can be and the next minute calling me by my surname and basically pushing me away from him.

It was all rather tiring.

One thing I knew for certain, the Hogwarts I had known and loved for the last six years was on the verge of changing. There was a shift in the air that I could no longer deny. I wasn't sure how or why this was happening, but I had the nasty feeling in the pit of my stomach (and I had started to really rely on that feeling) that he was more than less involved in it.


	17. Chapter 17

**Wow! You are all so wonderful to me I can't even believe it.  
>So sorry for the delay in posting. I am just starting my final exams for college and, if you know what that's like, you can understand my pain. If you don't, then feel incredibly grateful for your social life.<br>Anyways, here I am presenting you with chapter 17!**

**Read, enjoy, review!**

"I think two house elves have been following me around." Draco glanced behind him as we walked away from our potion's lesson. "I keep seeing them out of the corner of my eye."

I snorted; obviously the strain of whatever he was up to was getting to him. "House elves are following you? Hmmm…well I have a fairy godmother that grants me three wishes a day, just as long as I don't ask her to do my homework. Evidently I have to pull my own weight through school, though I continually ask her what the point of her existence is then."

Draco sneered at me. He didn't think my humor that morning was too funny. "I was being serious, Garcia."

"I was too."

He broke off without another word down a separate hallway headed toward the common room while I continued on my trek toward the Charms classroom. Rolling my eyes at his paranoid insecurities, I hastily picked up my step to catch up with Padma, who had rushed out of potions to be able to talk to Terry before our next lesson began.

Peeves, who I had luckily managed to avoid most of the term, was floating just above a crowd of students juggling what seemed to be pots of ink. A few upper-class students had various things placed strategically over their heads, ensuring that they would be dry and ink-free when they entered their next class. I had enough sense, and I had come across Peeves enough times, to know that, when in doubt, always bring an umbrella with you.

And that I did.

Reaching into my bag just as I was about to pass under him, I whipped out my umbrella and opened it quickly. I didn't bother apologizing to a first year that I had knocked in the side of the head. Peeves seemed a little put out at my cunning umbrella-filled plan and, instead, swooped down with a maniacal cackle on that poor first year and dumped one of the pots on his head.

I had made my way safely into the charms classroom without any further complications. I threw myself next to Padma, who was busy eyeing Terry from across the room. He was talking to Parvati, laughing with her as she told an animated story about something that had happened in her class before.

I watched as she narrowed her eyes at her twin sister. "Stupid cow, she knows I like him," she lamented as she slouched into her chair, looking morbidly put off. I put a hand on her shoulder affectionately, pulling my wand out of my pocket with the other in order to prepare myself for the lesson ahead.

"-don't forget to write the conclusion for your essay for Defense Against the Dark Arts this afternoon." Hermione passed by my table, scolding Ron for the lack of doing his homework. I always thought his organizational skills were that of a blast-ended skrewt and, although I didn't have much room to work with, I also imagined that Hermione was one of the reasons he had made it so far at Hogwarts.

"We have an essay due this afternoon?" I frantically asked Padma, who was still glaring at her desk miserably. She nodded, not bothering to take her eyes off the blank piece of parchment she had pulled from her bag a few minutes before I had arrived. "What's it on?"

She heaved a longing sigh (and I knew she was incredibly upset as she hadn't started to berate me about not doing my own homework). "It's a fifteen inch essay on the difference between ghosts and inferi. Due this afternoon for Snape." She clamped her jaw shut after that, tensing her muscles in a visible hatred toward her sister.

Just as Professor Flitwick began speaking about a color-changing spell, I grabbed Padma's blank parchment (she didn't even flinch) and scribbled down enough information about ghosts and inferi that I thought was necessary for Snape to accept.

"Miss Garcia? Are you paying attention?" Flitwick squeaked from the front of the class. Every whipped around in their seats to stare at me and, probably owing to the fact that I had a deer-in-the-headlights look on my face, many of them sniggered behind their hands.

"Of course professor!" I said joyously and I heard Padma next to me snort. At least she pulled herself out of her stupor long enough to enjoy my suffering at the hands of her own head of house. "You were just talking about the color changing spell!"

He narrowed his eyes at me and jumped down from the stack of books he had been perched on. "Then, Miss Garcia, you would be able to demonstrate the spell for me and your classmates."

I gulped as I picked up my wand from on top of my desk. Smiling humorlessly at him, I waved my wand in a circular motion and chimed "_multicorfors!__"_

The effect wasn't exactly what I had hoped, as a mighty elephant appeared on top of Flitwick's desk (crushing it immediately) and he set me up with two hundred sentences stating "I am a witch, not a baboon brandishing a stick."

"I remember when I had to write that," I heard Seamus Finnigan whisper to his best friend, Dean Thomas, behind me, "seems like Flitwick needs to come up with some new sentence structures."

The class turned back around in their seats as Flitwick continued on with his lesson, though many of them had looks of mild impression. Padma, who had seemingly cheered up after seeing an elephant in the classroom, started to practice this new-found charm with gusto. She managed to turn her sister's hair an unnatural shade of green, claiming quite defensively that it was an accident.

By lunch she had took on an immense happiness, even forcing me to skip down to the great hall with her.

"Can't you be a normal, brooding teenager?" I exasperated as I untangled myself from her death-grasp as we reached the Slytherin table, slamming my book bag down onto the wooden bench. A few third years next to me jumped in surprise, but only glowered as they realized where the noise had come from.

"Mmm…sorry, no can- hey! Is that Lysander?"

I turned around in interest as my mother's gray-brown owl soared into the great hall, bearing a letter in its sharp beak. I took the letter slowly as I pointed toward my cheese sandwich, offering it to the rather large owl.

It glared up at me, its wide eyes obviously expecting something other than a cheese sandwich. "I don't have anything! It's the middle of the day!"

Lysander glowered at me before opening his large wings, taking care to hit me on the cheek, before soaring out of one of the few open windows. Recognizing my mother's handwriting, I tore open the letter (expecting the worst) only to read something that actually made me laugh on the inside and out.

"What's so funny?" Padma asked, her mouth stuffed full of potato salad.

"Oh, Fletcher got arrested for pretending to be an inferi in Diagon Alley. Mum's pretty shook up about it, but what kind of idiot tries to pickpocket people by pretending to be an inferi?"

Padma snorted as she swallowed her potato salad and I was fairly certain it was going to come out of her nose. When it didn't (and mild disappointment on my part had set in) she tacked on, "Well, you could have written to him about your defense essay! Obviously he knows more about inferi and ghosts than we do."

That comment warranted a genuine laugh. We shoveled down the rest of our lunch, earning disgusted glares from fellow students, before bolting out of the great hall and toward Defense Against the Dark Arts just as the warning bell rang.

Draco, who was already sitting in the classroom, ignored me as I walked in. Evidently he was still pissed off about the whole fairy comment and I rolled my eyes to Padma, who sent me a sympathetic mock pout.

"Good afternoon, Draco Malfoy," I chimed to him rather annoyingly, even for my taste. I found great satisfaction as he glared at me from the corner of his eye, very much determined to continue his tirade of ignorance.

Snape entered the classroom a moment later, banging the door shut behind him. "The first thing I need is- Mr. Weasley put that away immediately!" Ron's ears turned bright red as he stored away a new spell-checking quill he had been raving about quietly to Harry. "As I was saying, I am collecting your essays first thing." With a flick of his rest, twenty-five essays flew toward him and he stacked them neatly into a pile.

"Now, let's see who put in the most time with this essay," Snape sneered as he flicked through the pile, stopping mid-way through with a disbelieving look etched onto his face. Fairly certain it was mine he was staring at, I edged my way slowly down my seat almost until my eyes were level with the table in front of me.

"Miss Garcia. Your essay seems a bit…short." He held the fifteen inches of parchment up into the air so the entire class could gaze upon my work. Draco chortled next to me, shaking his head. "I'm sure from way in the back, Miss Garcia, you could read to me what this…essay…says."

In large, bubble letters that had taken up the entire fifteen inches of parchment, I had written the words 'Ghosts are transparent.' A few students dared to let out chokes of laughter, which they soon covered up with coughs and hacks.

"It is easy to see," Snape said slowly, his lip curling into a sneer, "that nearly six years of magical education have not been wasted on you."

"But sir," I argued quickly, almost hearing the groan of protest emit from Padma at the front of the room, "you asked for fifteen inches of parchment and that's what I gave you!"

"First the elephant and now this," Harry was whispering to Ron a few seats ahead of me, "I'm really starting to think she's the reason Snape hasn't picked on us this year."

Snape sent a death-stare toward Harry, who quickly shut his mouth, feigning an innocent look. "Mr. Potter, since you seem to have this class in the palm of your hand. Please, tell me what the difference is between an Inferi and a ghost."

He cleared his throat nervously for a moment. "Well, like Natalie said…ghosts are transparent, but inferi are dead bodies. So…so they'd be solid…"

The professor clearly looked as if someone had snuck a rather foul-smelling sock under his nose. "A five year old could tell us these answers! The inferius is a corpse that has been reanimated to do a wizard's bidding. A ghost is the imprint of a departed soul left upon the earth…and as Garcia and Potter so wisely tell us, transparent."

"Well, I think those are the most useful definitions if you're trying to tell them apart!" I chimed in, another groan coming from my left as it was Draco's turn to sink his head into his hands. "I mean, we can't exactly ask if it's an imprint of a departed soul left upon the earth…and we may not have time to do a quick shuffle and see if it's a corpse. Transparency and solidity are our next best bets."

Harry grinned back at me in gratitude for sticking up for him. I grinned back, enjoying the sour sneer on the professor's face.

Snape had set me and Harry up with a detention on Saturday at eight in evening faster than you could even say the words 'ghosts are transparent.'

I scratched the back of my head awkwardly as he placed the stack of essays onto his desk, taking care to slip mine and Harry's in the garbage can.

"You, Natalie, are a force of nature," Draco chuckled quietly.

"Oh, now you're speaking to me?" I narrowed my eyes at him as he turned towards the front of the room, remembering that he was really supposed to be angry with me. "I want to talk to you tonight, by the way," I added on before returning my attention to Snape, who was beginning to lecture on the importance of dementors to our legal system.

The day couldn't have gone any slower as the conversation I wanted to have with Malfoy played over and over in my head. I had wanted to bring this up to him for a pretty long period of time and, since he was already mad at me about things unknown, I figured this was as good of a time as any.

The sun set, casting a majestic orange glow on the castle as I waited for him in the astronomy tower. Most people knew that I spent time with Padma after dinner and Malfoy went around doing Merlin knows what, so I wasn't too concerned with people wondering where we were.

Arms wrapped around my waist, pulling me closely into a familiar chest. I smiled slightly as that person kissed me briefly on the cheek.

"Not mad at me anymore, are you?" I asked cheekily as a smirk grew on Malfoy's face.

"You know I can't be mad at you for long," he responded and a twinge of guilt set in. This conversation was surely going to make him angry, but I needed answers. I needed to know what was going on.

As I opened my mouth to restart our previous conversation about our relationship, I noticed the orange glow had thrown him into a rather odd lighting. I took a step back, frowning, as I pushed him out of the rays of the sun and into a shady part of the tower. He peered oddly down at me.

"What are you doing?"

I didn't answer him. I glanced at him up and down in amazement, just now noticing the changes that had happened to him over the past year. His eyes were slightly sunken in, giving him a ghostly appearance. Darks bags set in underneath his eyelids. His face was more pallid than usual and, in the shadiness of the tower; it only enhanced the ghostly appearance.

He had an odd defeated air about him, nothing close to the usual confidence that radiated off of him. I finally looked up to his face in wonder.

"What's wrong with you?"

He looked confused, so I elaborated. "You're skin is pale, you have large bags under your eyes. You just look…sick."

He rolled his eyes, mumbling something sarcastic about becoming a vampire. I contemplated him with narrowed eyes, demanding the truth. He glared down at me, a visible defensive barrier put up in the depths of his gray eyes.

"It's nothing, Garcia. Nothing. Just drop it, okay?"

I swelled with frustration as I raked my eyes across his features once again. "No, no it's not nothing," I finally exploded at him, "you've been walking around here with an air of a prince for almost five years and now, you look sick! Are you sick? What in Merlin's name is going on with you?"

He didn't say anything for another moment. The orange glow behind him started to disappear, leaving dark shadows on the floor in its place.

"Is this about Katie Bell?"

"Stop, Garcia-"

"Or about Ron Weasley? Harry is onto you, you know."

"Garcia-"

"You poisoned his best friend, didn't you? I don't know how and I don't know why-"

"STOP!" he growled loudly enough to cut off my rant. "Just stop. This is none of your business. I'm not going to tell you. It's too dangerous for you to know. You would get me killed, get my family killed, and get yourself killed. Stop digging into this. Immediately."

My pent up frustration only swelled, as I threw back a retort about him never asking me to do something, but always telling me. He placed his hands on my hips once again, tightening his hands when I tried to wriggle away.

"I'm asking you, right now, for your life's sake to stop digging into this. It's too dangerous."

I slouched in defeat, looking into his gray eyes. They glittered with something unknown, a spark of feeling finally set into them. He leaned down to kiss me gently on the lips.

"I'm still going to figure this out, you know."

He sighed in defeat, pulling me into a tight hug. I wrapped my arms around him, breathing in his sharp scent. "I really wish you wouldn't."

We eventually made our way back down to the main floor of the castle after having to stop a few times for Peeves, once for Mrs. Norris, and another because Draco had threatened to set on fire a portrait that Sir Cadogan had taken up residence in.

"Come back you scurvy, yellow-bellied-"

We never heard what he was going to say, however, as he had made his way to the end of the portraits and could no longer keep up with us. We separated rather hastily when we reached the great hall, as I could hear Pansy ranting from around the corner and I didn't want anything to seem suspicious.

I gave her a wide berth, cutting across to the other side of the corridor as she flung herself onto Malfoy, who backed away quickly with a look of great disdain planted on his face.

"But Draco, why," I heard her whine as I continued my trek toward the common room, stopping briefly to slam down the visor of a rather perverted suit of armor that wolf whistled to me as I walked past.

It sniggered in response as I turned another corner at a brisk walk and ran head-long into someone who squeaked in surprise.

"Nat! Merlin, I was looking for you!" Padma panted as she clutched her chest. "Geeze my heart is beating eight hundred times a minute. Listen, I have some big news for you."

I rolled my eyes. "Padma, the last time you had big news was when Cormac McLaggen smelled so bad that someone taped an 'I farted' sign on his back. Not exactly front page news comes from you."

She pulled off a rather haughty look, choosing to ignore my jibes as she went on. "Lavender and Ron Weasley broke up!" she looked rather elated at the subject, even though she had only spoken to Ron a few times since the fourth year. She still harbored a rather sore spot for the boy since she was set up to go to the Yule Ball with him and then he refused to dance with her.

I, however, had one too many drinks involving fire whiskey and wasn't able to completely control my actions. This had unfortunately resulted in a knocked over Christmas tree and setting one of the band member's on fire.

"Because my dear soul sister," she said in an explanation kind of tone as she slung an arm over my shoulder, leading me away from my common room and back toward the great hall, "this means that Parvati will be so busy trying to console Lavender that she won't have time to make a move on Terry. This eventually results in me making a move on him myself."

She had a look on her face as if Christmas had come early and I didn't have the heart to tell her that girls' didn't exactly work that way. I managed a rather fake smile, nodding my head enthusiastically as her face glowed with joy once more.

"For Merlin's sake Ron! It's not Lavender!" Hermione scolded him as he had just leapt behind the suit of armor I had slammed the visor down on twenty minutes previously. Ron gave us an apologetic smile as he slunk out from behind the statue and followed in Hermione's footsteps, jumping behind a pillar once again when another group of girls turned the corner.

"Poor guy," I finally commented after a moment of watching him in silence. "He really does get the short end of the stick."


	18. Chapter 18

**Thank you for all your encouragement and wonderful reviews!  
>I really do appreciate the support!<br>And also, thank you for being patient with my crazy schedule for posting. My school work is on overdrive.**

**I present to you chapter 18!  
>Read, review, enjoy!<strong>

My ears were buzzing rather oddly in Charms class a few days after the breakup of Lavender and Ron. I kept picking in them to see if a bee of some sort had flown in there, but came up with nothing tangible. Padma, who was seated next to me, seemed to be having the same issue.

"Do you hear that?" she finally exclaimed in a rather annoyed tone as she slammed her wand onto the desk. We were supposed to be turning vinegar into wine, but hadn't had much luck. So far in the lesson all I had done was watch Ronald Weasley with cautious eyes as he twirled his wand toward the ceiling without paying the slightest attention to what he was doing.

"Do you think it's odd that we can't hear Harry's conversation?" I asked Padma, as she picked up her wand and tried to turn the vinegar again. It only bubbled rather menacingly. I leaned away from it.

"Maybe they're just whispering really quietly," she lamented, digging in her ear with her pinky finger once again. "I just wish that we could figure out what the hell is making that buzzing noise."

Snow started to fall from the ceiling of the classroom and Hermione, who was the first to notice, pulled Ron's arm down. The snow stopped immediately, but I didn't miss the nasty look Lavender sent Hermione through red-rimmed eyes. Hermione removed her hand quickly, wiping her palm on her robes in embarrassment.

"Must have been a bad night in general," Padma commented casually as she flicked her wand toward the cup once again. This time it steamed. "Dean and Ginny broke up, too."

I glanced at her in awe. "How do you figure all this stuff out? You aren't even friends with any of them!"

She shrugged her shoulders, looking rather impressed with herself. "Oh, it's just a gift. Are you going to practice your wine making or can I have your cup? I seemed to have evaporated all of mine."

I slid the cup over to her, watching Harry's mouth move noiselessly from a few rows away. Even with the heavy amount of talking throughout the classroom, I could usually hear some snippets of their conversation.

"Flitwick." I finally heard Ron mumble, the buzzing lifting as if the swarm of bees around my head decided to fly away. The squat wizard ambled toward them, eyeing their murky glasses reproachfully.

"A little less talk, I think, boys," he squeaked out, "let me see you both try."

The two boys flicked their wands at the same time. Harry's vinegar turned to ice. Ron's flask exploded. Shards of glass littered the classroom as squeals of surprise from the noise followed. Since I had been watching the entire scene, I managed to duck under my desk. Padma had been paying close attention to Terry, who was trying to catch the eye of Parvati, who was consoling Lavender quietly on the other side of the room.

I laughed from my bent-in-half position under the table as a few pieces of glass nailed her in the cheek, shaking her from her stupor.

"Maybe you should be paying more attention to your cup," I chortled, "and less attention to the rather annoying Terry Boot across the room."

She glared at me, picking pieces of glass out of her robes. "He's not annoying," she mumbled, but her gaze didn't lift again toward the boy during the class period.

Flitwick set us up with practicing the spell for homework and I already knew I wasn't going to do it. Throwing my bag carelessly over my shoulder, I followed Padma out of the classroom and toward the great hall to grab some food before our next class. It wasn't technically lunch time yet, but sometimes the house elves were in a particularly good mood and sent snacks up for students on break.

There was a crowd of people surrounding the Gryffindor table and I craned my neck to see what was going on. Padma grabbed a cinnamon bun, biting into it with haste. The crowd cleared significantly to unveil a skinnier, but healthy Katie Bell who was smiling at the students surrounding her.

"Oh, I didn't know she was back," Padma said as she wrinkled her forehead in confusion.

"I'm seriously starting to reconsider my awe in your ability to find out the gossip," I joked. She threw me another glare, taking a slow bite of her cinnamon bun without breaking eye contact with me. I snorted as Katie Bell stood up from the table.

"I have to get going to the common room," she laughed easily, throwing her long, thick braid over her shoulder. "I need to grab some books for my next class. I'll talk to you later!"

She glided past us, a small, happy smile still plastered on her face from all the attention she was receiving. Not that I could blame them, but a lot of them seemed to jump on the "I'm Katie Bell's best friend" bandwagon while she was gone.

My next two weeks were filled with detentions, homework, and wandering aimlessly around the castle as people prepared for final exams and the next quidditch game.

I was rather surprised to hear that Professor McGonagall had booked an announcer for the next two games already, but there was a rumor spreading that I was interested in announcing the championship match, which I most certainly wasn't.

Padma's predilection for gossip continued to amaze me as she found out more about Dean and Ginny's breakup. I found it particularly interesting, which is saying something considering I don't participate in gossip, when she told me that Harry was crushing on Ginny, even going so far as to write her a love song, which he was planning on singing with the school's choir after the championship game.

"No, that can't be true!" I laughed as I scooped a few newt eyes off of my desk and threw them into my potion. "I can't imagine Harry writing a song, let alone singing it. And since when do we have a school choir?"

She looked at me in disbelief for a moment. "You don't remember the school choir and that song they sang at the beginning of the third year? Merlin, Natalie, you only picked on those poor kids for WEEKS after the welcome feast."

"Oh yeah!" I chuckled, throwing in a whole gurdyroot.

Padma eyed my potion cautiously. "Erm, were we supposed to add a gurdyroot?"

I shrugged my shoulders, impressed with myself about the impromptu ingredient change. I thought it was adding a little…pizzazz…so to say. My potion did turn a rather bright blue hue before the entire thing shrank into a rather condense blob and flung itself out of the cauldron.

I shrieked as it landed on the floor with a thunk, clutching my chest in fright. A few students laughed as the blob turned to face me (at least I thought it did- it's bodily structure was rather confusing) and sent me an indignant look (well, that's the look I imagined it to have if it had a face). It scooted across the room at an alarming pace before squeezing under the door and disappearing from view.

"You added the gurdyroot, didn't you Miss Garcia?" Slughorn asked rather dryly as he pointed over his shoulder to the chalkboard at the front of the room. I squinted through the haze to see the words DO NOT ADD GURDYROOT written in giant letters.

"Whoops! Must have slipped my mind!" I grinned as he stared at me, unimpressed. Another detention was tacked on to my growing list just as class ended. I groaned in frustration, slinking down into my chair as the bell rang.

"Come on, trouble," Padma grinned as she placed a hand under my arm and lifted me to a standing position. "Oh, don't give me that look. You knew that one was coming when you threw in the gurdyroot."

I shrugged again and smiled, ending my pity party as we made our way through the crowded halls. The sun, which had normally started to set at this time, still shone bright in the sky, signifying that summer was well on its way.

As we made our way into the great hall, I shoved past a group of first years while Padma scoffed at my crowd control techniques. "Okay, are you Draco Malfoy now? Aren't you a little old to push little children for fun?" she scolded, though she picked up the pace to get through the opening I had created in the entrance of the great hall.

I frowned for a moment when I realized that I hadn't seen Draco all day. Wrinkling my forehead in concern, I glanced around the hall, a slight worry knotting up my stomach when I didn't see him.

We hadn't exchanged witty remarks or argued at any time today and I racked my brain to see if I could remember seeing him at all. When I couldn't, it only made me more anxious. As uncaring and hostile he tried to come off as, he never in six years skived a day of classes for the fun of it.

"I wonder where Malfoy is," I voiced my concerns outloud and Padma sent me an odd look.

"Who cares where he is," she retorted, setting her bag down onto the floor as she swung her legs over the bench. "Just one more person I don't have to worry about you killing today."

I snorted, no response coming to my head for that one. The rest of the students filed into the great hall after a few minutes, clambering over first years that nervously eyed the entrance for their friends. A few people, like me, just shoved the little tykes out of the way. Others just avoided touching them at all costs, skirting around the entrance with glares of disdain.

Padma picked up her head in interest when a frantic-looking fourth year jogged into the hallway and threw herself down at the Hufflepuff table with her friends. She leaned her head right next to one's ear, whispering hastily before pulling back to nod in some sort of surprised verification.

"I wonder what's going on there," Padma commented casually as she narrowed her eyes at the girl. My best friend, bless her, could sniff out a good story from miles away. "Oh look, there's Ernie Macmillian. I needed to ask him about out Transfiguration essay."

She swung her legs over the bench and fought another crowd of first years over to Ernie, who was seated only a few people down from the frightened fourth year. I laughed to myself louder than I had anticipated and a few Ravenclaw members shot looks of annoyance at me.

I watched as she seemed to get the entire story from Ernie, her eyes widening and her hand clamping over her mouth. She whispered something to him and he nodded, affirming the story with raised eyebrows. She thanked him and slowly got up, this time pushing through another group of second years who had the misfortune of entering the hall at that particular moment. In her haste, she didn't even bother to apologize.

"So what's it this time?" I asked. The hall seemed to be buzzing with this newfound gossip, as a few more people entered the hall in shock and hurried over to whisper to their friends. "Did someone clog the fourth floor bathroom again?" I chuckled at my own joke, but Padma didn't even crack a smile.

"Harry cursed Malfoy," she stumbled out, her face molded into a frozen expression, as if the words were foreign to her.

I frowned, chewing on my thumb nail as food in front of us appeared on the golden platters. "Padma, that's hardly news. Those two have been at it since day one. Do you know how many duels they've gotten into? I mean, three of them at least were instigated by me…"

She shook her head quickly. "No, I mean Harry CURSED Malfoy. With a dark spell."

I felt my stomach jolt as I dropped the spoon I had picked up with a clatter. No one around me seemed to notice, as the news had finally spread to the Ravenclaw table. Everyone was staring around with mixtures of shock and worry on their faces.

"What do you mean with a dark spell?" I said sharply, leaning toward her. "What happened?"

Padma continued her gaze of worry as she answered. "Evidently that fourth year girl heard it from Moaning Myrtle, she's been popping up in all the bathrooms spreading the story evidently, who was there in the bathroom. Something about they got into a duel and Harry used this dark spell that basically ripped Draco's stomach open. Snape managed to salvage some of his blood, but they took him pretty quick to the hospital wing."

My gaze flicked up in time to see Pansy Parkinson rushing away from the Slytherin table, tears dripping from her eyes and onto her cheeks.

I made a mental note to visit Malfoy as soon as I could get away from Padma. My anxiety at an all time high, I was no longer feeling hungry or tired from the long day of classes.

"Do they know if he's going to be okay?" I asked quietly as I played with the fringe on the end of one of my sleeves. "I mean, not that I really care, but he is my house prefect and I don't want to hear about this one like we heard about the time he was attacked by that hippogriff."

Padma shrugged, turning to the food in front of her. She hadn't lost her appetite from the news. "Don't ask me. I told you everything I know. " She paused, contemplating the mashed potatoes. "I wonder why they were having a duel in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom."

I looked around the hall once again. It was a much more subdued atmosphere than ten minutes previously. The Slytherins were looking downcast as their fearless leader lay in a hospital bed with a chest wound. Everyone else was in shock that Harry Potter, the chosen boy, the one who had given everyone hope in the last year was to blame for it. The teachers were whispering to one another with sharp expressions on their faces.

I couldn't help but notice that Hermione and Ron were absent from dinner, more than likely comforting Harry in their common room.

"How did he even learn a spell like that?" I asked Padma, who was stuffing her face with turkey and cranberry sauce. "I mean, it's not like you can find that in Advanced Charms."

It took a moment for her to swallow her food and she gestured with her hands as if that would make her chew faster. "He is the chosen one," she finally said after swallowing a large portion of food with difficulty, "I bet he has access to so much more than we ever will." She glared at her plate in obvious jealousy before picking up her fork and jabbing it into another piece of turkey.

I was abnormally quiet the rest of dinner and many students in my general vicinity glanced at me in concern. The last time I was this quiet, I had been planning a demonstration with the Weasley twins that resulted in a spectacular fireworks show, followed by a very pissed off Umbridge.

"Sorry, I, erm…forgot a book in my dormitory," I said in a very bad attempt to excuse myself from the table. "I have to get going."

Padma, whose eyes were solely trained onto Terry, just shrugged in response. I had an inkling she wouldn't even know I was gone. Once out of the view of the great hall, I picked up my pace toward the hospital wing. The paintings were even muttering about the attack and I had half a mind to ask them if they had heard any updated news.

I didn't, though, as I skidded into the hallway that led to the hospital wing. I was slightly relieved when I saw that Draco was alone in his corner. Pansy must have come and gone already. I took a deep breath and walked slowly toward the blonde boy. His eyes opened as my footsteps came nearer and his head turned lazily toward me.

"Hey," I said quietly as I sat down in the seat next to him. "How in the world did this happen? And why were you in the girls' bathroom?"

He turned his head so he was staring up at the ceiling. Silence encompassed us for a few moments. "I- I just wanted to be alone. I always hear people complain about Myrtle's bathroom, so I went there. Then Pothead Potter walked in." A wince of pain passed over his face as he adjusted his body in the bed. "We had a duel and he hit with this spell. The end."

"Can I see it?" I asked, more eagerly than I should have. He cocked an eyebrow at me before lifting up his shirt. My mind jumping to things other than the curse, I couldn't help but notice his abs were more toned than I had first imagined. My brow wrinkled in confusion. "Erm, Malfoy. There's nothing there."

"Garcia, did you really think that Madam Pomfrey would just let me sit here with a big gash in my stomach?" His eyes sparkled in amusement.

I glared at him, not appreciating the mocking tone. "I at least thought there would be a battle scar. But there is absolutely nothing there."

Malfoy pulled down his shirt hastily as Madam Pomfrey scurried back in with a tonic in her hand. "This is for the pain," she said firmly as she shoved the bottle into his hand. "Drink it and then get some rest. That curse took a lot of energy from you, Mr. Malfoy." She eyed me for a moment before bustling away to treat another boy a few beds down.

He pulled a face as he chugged down the potion, grimacing in disgust as it slid down his throat. "That…is the grossest thing I've ever tasted." He set the now-empty vial down on the bedside table. "And what are you doing here, anyways? Don't you have homework or something?"

I rolled my eyes. "Since when do I do homework, Malfoy? You're looking at the girl who single-handedly got Umbridge to leave the school from the lack of homework I did."

"Yeah…I don't think it happened that way."

Something blue squirmed into my peripheral vision. I shot my gaze over to a small, blob of blue that had edged itself out from underneath a bed nearby. I narrowed my eyes at it as it slowly scooted its way over to me.

"Is that…" Draco started, pointing to the blob with an expression of glee. It lit up his features, almost throwing away the placid skin and dark circles that had come to be permanent fixtures on his face. I found myself wondering why he didn't have that kind of expression more often.

"Don't even go there." I glanced down at it again and seemed to sit up like a dog…again, if it had a bodily structure.

"I think it wants to go home with you," he chortled as the blob started to climb up my leg, pausing briefly to ponder the distance between my leg and my over the shoulder before hopping into the bag. It looked up at me in interest as I peered into the crack between the zippers.

"Looks like I found myself a new pet," I sighed as I hitched the bag up higher onto my shoulder. It stuck a piece of itself out of the bag, looking mildly disgruntled.

I looked back at Draco to see that he was staring at me. He dropped his gaze to his hands, his cheeks tinged with a pink blush.

"So what do you come here for?" he coughed out, reaching out for a conversation topic before an awkward silence could set in.

"Erm…you know, just making sure you were okay," I responded quite lamely as I kicked the toe of my shoe onto the stone floor. I looked back up at Malfoy to see that his face had broken out into a half-smirk, half-grin. "What?"

"You were concerned about me," he said with an air of insolence. He placed both hands behind his head and leaned back into the pillows. "You made the effort to come see me because you were worried."

"I never said that Malfoy."

He sighed in pleasure, gazing up at the ceiling in mock emotion. "Natalie Garcia has come to visit me in the hospital wing. Do you think that has anything to do with our secret relationship? How's that going by the way, considering we haven't seen much of each other."

"Oh shove it. You're putting words into my mouth."

He pondered for a moment, squinting his eyes as he sighed deeply again. "Maybe I should get mortally wounded more often. This is our first conversation in days."

I narrowed my eyes as I crossed my arms over my chest. "You were not mortally wounded. You are so making this out to be so much worse than it probably was. You don't even have a damn scratch!"

"If I did, would you be my nurse?" he asked rather seductively with a wink.

I felt the heat rise to my face, a squirming in my heart that had nothing to do with the potions blob rummaging around in my bag. I did what every girl in my situation with no comeback would do…

I kissed him long and hard on the lips. Then, I left.


	19. Chapter 19

**Who has the best readers?  
>This girl, right here.<strong>

**My final exams are still a work in progress (along with the ridiculous number of essays I have to complete), so thank you for your continued patience!**

**Here is chapter 19 in the series!  
>As usual: read, review, and enjoy!<strong>

A week after Malfoy was cursed, May rushed in sweeping away any of the rain and winds that the previous months had left. There was even a summer breeze that wafted through the corridors, drawing the students out of hiding from the long winter. A few of them had the nerve to dip their feet in the lake, wading in far enough to tickle the tentacles of the giant squid that lazed on the surface of the water.

The atmosphere of the school had picked up slightly after a few more days of shock waved through. The Gryffindor team got the raw end of the deal when it was announced (by Snape in Defense Against the Dark Arts no less) that Harry would be banned from the quidditch field.

"Personally, I thought he was doing everyone a favor," Padma said gleefully as she marched through the corridors, me tailing after her like a frantic shadow. She had been in an exceptionally good mood since Terry got tired of waiting for Parvati to finish consoling Lavender about her breakup with Ron.

Evidently she took this as a sign from Merlin to make her move on Terry, but had yet to do so. I didn't mention it, but I was happy that she had stayed silent as my respect for Terry had declined quite rapidly once he had turned his attention toward Parvati.

Maybe I was just being bias.

"Really, Malfoy is a manipulative bully," she tacked on after a moment of my silence. I had decided to stay quiet due to the small fact that she was ripping on my…well I didn't really know what he was…and that she had no idea what kind of relationship we had developed the last few months.

"And!" she continued on, this time without pausing for me to get a word in. "Ravenclaw is going to completely annihilate Gryffindor tomorrow. My life has really turned around in the last week!"

I felt a snort of laughter rise from my chest, but I snuffed it out as quickly as it had come. I really liked this newfound Padma Patil and I wasn't going to ruin her good mood by telling her that Ginny Weasley was playing the seeker or that Gryffindor had a rather nasty history of being in last place before triumphantly recovering at the last second, claiming the victory that is the house cup at the end of the year feast.

The weather was so nice outside, I considered skiving Defense Against the Dark Arts to sit by the lake and get my tan on, but I was already entering the classroom, so I figured I might as well go to the lesson now.

This was the first day Draco was back in class and he offered up a small smile as I sat down next to him. I was surprised that he hadn't acted like the world ended (as he did in the third year). On the contrary, he kept more to himself now than he ever had. Pansy would throw herself at him in the common room asking if she could do anything, _anything,_for him. He always declined her offer rather politely, which brought with it the element of surprise on my part.

He seemed to disappear more often than not now, even digging into our late night strolls through the castle to "think and be alone."

There was one night he came back to the common room looking more elated than ever. I was rather amused that he was having an animated conversation with Crabbe and Goyle, mostly considering that I was unsure of their ability to speak until that moment.

"Oh, Draco," Pansy purred as she slithered her way across the room and leant against the table Malfoy and I shared, "I'm so sorry you have to sit next to this mudblood loser, but I promise you I'll make it up to you in your dormitory tonight." She winked at him in a way she probably thought was seductive, but really made her look like an oversized puppet.

I threw up in my mouth a little bit. Draco, obviously feeling much better that he was back in the vicinity of real people, sneered before saying, "I would rather sit with this mudblood loser than with you."

Pansy seemed utterly baffled at this statement, which made me want to pipe into the conversation even more.

"Erm, actually," I offered up as she snapped her narrowed eyes over to me, "Not that it matters to me, because it doesn't, but for the record- I wouldn't be in Slytherin if I were a muggle-born. Something about it in the rulebook..."

Pansy gaped at me like a fish for a moment before storming away, evidently comeback-free. Draco snuck a smirk over to me as Snape entered the classroom, banging the door shut behind him. All conversation was killed at that point as every student trained their eyes on him.

"As all of you are aware, end of term exams are coming up," he began slowly, a sneer spreading across his face, "As some of you are aware, your work in this class has been far below average and I will have the unfortunate task of failing you." His eyes fixed quite nastily onto me for a moment, but I held his gaze with certainty that it wasn't me. Though, I already knew that it was.

"So, starting now we will be going through all of the material in review-"

I leant toward Draco slightly as I muttered, "What do you think about starting a betting pool on the fate of him as the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher?"

"It's tasteless and tacky, unless you're going to be making money off of it."

I tried my best to hide a smirk. "I'm glad I taught you something this year."

A rumble of thunder shook the castle and many of my classmates squeaked with delight, cutting off Snape to whisper to their neighbors excitedly. I watched Snape in amusement as he first glowered at the students, then hitched up the almighty-sneer before barking, "I trust that all of you have seen a thunderstorm before, therefore said weather should not be a shock to you in May."

That shut everyone up as they hustled to return their attention to the professor, who had just turned the slide to another picture at the front of the room.

The rest of the classes went on without even a blip in the usual schedule, despite Pansy repeatedly trying to trip me muggle style by hiding behind various statues and sticking her foot out right before I passed by.

At the end of the day, I was creating a wide berth from any statue, glaring behind every single one in triumph, even though I managed to only catch her in the act twice.

The next morning, everyone was squealing with joy and excitement at breakfast as banners and scarves of blue and maroon were being waved around the great hall. Insincere taunts between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw members had the two tables laughing in amusement as they geared up to face each other for the house cup.

I sat at the end of the Slytherin table quite grumpily (Padma hadn't come to breakfast yet) with my chin rested on the palm of my hand. I watched in jealousy as people threw their heads back in mirth, swung scarves like a lasso over their heads, and responded to ridiculous poems with versus of their own.

On my end of the table, a few humorous, but fake arguments between house members were disbanded quickly as Slytherins threw in their two cents. A fourth year girl in my house recited a poem to one of the Ravenclaw quidditch team members, saying something about her lineage must have descended from ogres.

I rolled my eyes; the classiness of my house knew no bounds. A few of the Gryffindor quidditch team members glowered at their captain in anger as he waved good luck to the few students that weren't giving him the cold shoulder.

He almost ran straight into Malfoy, who just glared down at him until Harry changed direction in an attempt to walk around the blonde haired Slytherin.

Malfoy, who eyed the table quickly, let his gaze fall onto me. He quickly made his way over to my end of the table, swinging his legs over the bench, and sat with a thud on the wooden seat. He grabbed a spoonful of eggs with one hand while reaching for the toast with the other.

"Erm, what are you doing? You do realize we are surrounded by other people, right?" I hissed at him as I watched him shovel some food into his mouth. He shrugged in response, using his non-verbal communication to jam some more food into his already crammed mouth.

I sat back in disgust.

Once he came up for a breath, he said, "No one will really care. Look at them. Everyone is so focused on this stupid quidditch game."

I took a second to glance up the table. He was right. Almost every student, sans Crabbe and Goyle who were eating with gusto, had a focused expression tacked onto their faces. These expressions were trained on the happy, smiling members of the other houses, as if the looks on their faces could be burned off with a glare.

"I thought you were really into quidditch. You went to every game the last couple of years," I prodded as I turned my attention back to him. He was, once again, shoveling food into his mouth with impressing speed.

"There are more important things going on in my life than quidditch finals," he half-yelled over the applause of the students, as the two quidditch teams had just stood up from their house tables and started the celebratory march toward the pitch, "one day you'll understand that too."

"Natalie! Oh…" Padma trailed off as she slowed her sprint to a walk as she realized who I was sitting with. "Why are you sitting with him?"

"He actually sat with-"

"It's my house, Patil," Malfoy sneered as he picked up his plate and stood from the table, "I can sit wherever I want. But since you want to stick your nose into places it doesn't belong, I'll tell you that I was just telling her that she has detention with Snape tomorrow at eight. Don't be late." He winked at me subtly before making his way toward the other end of the table, where Blaise was seated with Millicent Blustrode.

"Mmm…what a ray of sunshine he turned out to be," Padma commented neutrally as she sat down at the table, "his mother must be proud."

I tried with all my might to focus my attention onto her, though my thoughts kept floating back to Malfoy voluntarily sitting next to me in the overcrowded hall.

After Padma had finished her breakfast, we followed the cheering crowd from the great hall and down to the quidditch pitch, where the two teams were just finishing warm ups. They sped into the changing rooms with warp speed as the crowd started to pour into the stands, whooping and clapping loudly.

I managed to catch a glimpse of Ron Weasley, who brought up the rear. His face was frozen in a pained expression, not to mention it was rather on the green side. I felt a stab of pity for him as the Slytherin section broke out in a loud, off tone rendition of Weasley is Our King led by none other than Pansy Parkinson.

"You're cheering for Ravenclaw right?" Padma asked as we settled into our seats behind Terry Boot and a few of his friends. She shoved one side of a blue banner into my hands and I fumbled to keep a hold of it. "If not, you are now!"

Terry turned around and eyed Padma in amusement. She grinned down at him, her cheeks blushed a bright pink.

"Why don't you just ask him out already?" I whispered to her. She glared at me in response, flicking her eyes pointedly down to Terry with an obvious "we're not talking about this here" look on her face. I rolled my eyes as I raised the banner over my head, mimicking her motion. "And you do realize I'm a Slytherin, right?" I half-yelled over the chanting crowd.

"Evidently not anymore!" Pansy screeched over a few rows, glaring in my direction. Evidently she had heard me. I decided to not rise to the opportunity, but instead shut my lips tight together and focused on the two teams that just zoomed out of the tunnels underneath the stands.

The students roared in response, waving banners, flags, and scarves over their heads. A few Gryffindor boys (Seamus Finnigan in the lead on this one) took their shirts off and swung them around like a lasso.

I pulled my jacket tighter around my body. Watching them do that made me cold.

Ginny took a step forward and shook hands with the Ravenclaw captain, Rogers Davies. There was a steely, competitive glint in her eye that even I could see from in the stands.

"Professor McGonagall would like to inform Seamus Finnigan to re-clothe himself before this match begins," a dreamy, mysterious voice echoed from the teacher's section. Padma and I whipped our heads to the left, straining to catch a glimpse at who was announcing for the game.

"They got Luna again?" I asked in surprise. The crowd, half laughing- half cheering, paid little attention to the start of the game, as Seamus Finnigan leapt onto the edge of the stands and waved his shirt around his head once again before pulling it over his body.

"Must have been a nargle…" Luna announced. I held in a cheer as Chambers punched the ball out from under Dean Thomas' arm. It fell into the hands of a strategically placed Davies, who zoomed toward a somber looking Ron Weasley.

Much unlike the Slytherin versus Gryffindor game, it was played clean and fun. Slytherins booed no matter who had the quaffle, but no one really played attention to them anyways.

Ron fumbled with the ball, but it slipped through his fingers and into the middle hoop. Ravenclaw broke out in cheers as Gryffindor groaned, a few students placed their hands over their faces.

"TAKE THAT GRYFFINDOR!" Padma screamed over Terry's head. He jumped in fright, glancing up at her in concern as she offered up a rather shocking hand gesture that I wish her mother was around to see. "SUCK ON THAT!"

"Padma!" I laughed as I patted her back. "It's okay, you don't have to frighten the students around you!"

She sniggered as she held up her once side of the banner. "I'm just so ridiculously excited! It's been so long since we've won a quidditch match!"

Padma's excitement was short-lived, however, as Gryffindor began to go on a scoring streak, eventually bringing up the lead with seventy points to twenty.

"Why are they playing so bad?" she shrieked in frustration, stamping her foot on the wooden stands. It shook menacingly in response and a few first years shot up in concern, eyeing the bench as if it were going to fall through.

"I really think you should calm-"

"Shut up, Terry," Padma growled down at him and he quickly spun back around in his seat, his shoulders hunched over. I let out a cackle of laughter at the look on his face. It would be awhile before she realized what had just happened. When it did, I'm sure she would bury her face in a pillow and scream in humiliation.

Chambers passed the quaffle quickly to Davies, who dropped it down to Bradley. They managed to make their way across the pitch fast enough to catch Weasley off guard, as the quaffle flew past his ear, bringing the score for Ravenclaw up to thirty.

Padma, who had sucked me into her excitement, started to jump up and down, pointing excitedly as Ginny and Cho Chang sped off toward the other end of the pitch. Ginny, who was a much better flyer in general than Cho, raced forward and cut off the other seeker, causing her to lose track of the snitch.

"That stupid bi-"

I elbowed Padma hard in the ribs. A few of the students in our vicinity were becoming rather nervous of Padma's antics, many of the others just thought her raving lunacy was amusing. Across the pitch, Seamus had once again taken off his shirt and was waving it in circles.

"Mr. Finnigan!" Professor McGonagall's voice cracked over the crowd as she yanked the megaphone out of Luna's hands. Luna looked mildly surprise at this outburst, though Luna always managed to look mildly surprised so I wasn't quite sure if that was the reason.

Ginny threw the quaffle to Dean Thomas, who sped off into the sun toward the Ravenclaw goals. We all had to shield our eyes against the bright rays, using our hands as visors. Dean threw the quaffle, just grazing the keeper's fingertips as it soared in. A loud ding rang through the pitch as the score was raised once again.

Padma groaned in frustration as she covered her face with her hands.

"It's okay, Padma. We still have a while to go."

That while didn't last too much longer, as Gryffindor went on another scoring streak to bring up the score to two hundred points to one hundred twenty. Lavender and Parvati laughed quite viciously as Ron bobbled another quaffle, almost falling off his brook in the process.

Ravenclaw scored once more, making it two hundred points to one hundred thirty.

"If Cho could just catch that damn snitch!" Padma vented, aiming a kick toward a first year, who jumped out of the way just in time. I side-glanced her in shock. It wasn't like Padma at all to vent her frustrations toward younger students.

The match didn't last much longer after that, as Gryffindor had only allowed Ravenclaw to score one more time. Ginny caught the snitch a few moments after the three hundredth point had been scored. She held the snitch high above her head as the Gryffindor team clobbered her mid-air.

The roar of celebration broke out as the Gryffindor students poured out onto the field, running to be the first to congratulate their house mates on a match well done. Seamus, who I figured would run out half-naked, managed to keep his shirt on.

I gazed at Padma in concern, as she had collapsed onto the wooden bench in shock. Her jaw had dropped and she was staring in front of her with a blank expression in her eyes. I prodded her shoulder quickly before taking a step back in case she exploded. When she didn't move, I leaned forward and prodded her once more on the shoulder.

"How." She whispered slowly. I had to lean forward a little more to hear her talk. "How do those pesky Gryffindors always manage to steal the thunder from everyone else in the school?"

I shrugged, not really knowing what to say. She stood up slowly, still staring in shock down at the still-celebrating Gryffindor house.

"Let's go," she grumbled, turning away from me and heading toward the exit of the pitch.

"But I wanted to stay and watch!" I whined in a teasing tone, but she obviously wasn't in the mood for my jokes. I clambered quickly over a group of somber first years as she sent me a glare of death.

The mood in the quidditch pitch as a whole was light-hearted and happy, even throughout the Ravenclaw house. Everyone was excited for the end of term, the warm weather, and the chance to escape the castle.

I tipped my head back, allowing the sun's rays to shine over my face. My heart was lighter than it had been in awhile and I found myself wondering where Draco Malfoy was at that particular moment. Maybe I would find him later and sneak some time in before dinner started.

Little did I know, that light-heartedness all of the students felt would be very short lived.


	20. Chapter 20

**Here we are! At chapter 20!  
>I don't know about you, but I feel like this has gone by kind of fast!<strong>

**As you all are probably aware, we are coming to the closing of this story (collective 'awww' from readers), but don't fret!  
>I have already begun the outlining and writing of part two of the series, so there will be more information about that in the weeks ahead!<br>But, we still have a bit to go in Better Left Unsaid. **

**As always: read, review, and enjoy!**

"So, you've heard the rumor about Harry having a dragon tattooed across his chest, right?" Padma asked me at dinner as she picked through a chicken salad. "Evidently it's very manly."

I snorted in response, imagining the funny scene of Harry going under the needle. "You know, haven't heard that one. But, again, thanks for the top of the line news story for the day."

She sneered playfully at me before taking a bite of her salad. The school year was beginning to wind down and the restlessness of the students could be felt in the air. There was a zing, a second wind if you will, of the students clamping down on their studying in hopes of getting exams out of the way as quickly as possible.

I glanced around the half-filled hall for Draco, coming up with disappointment as he was absent again from dinner. The last few days he had been notably gone from meals, breaks, and sometimes even classes.

In other odd news, Harry had rarely given me a moment to myself, as he had in the past week coincidentally knocked over a potion filled cauldron in potions and banished a pillow in charms into a book case, always resulting in him needing to stick around after class to eavesdrop on my conversations.

Padma, who had begun to notice Harry's odd antics, gazed in concern over to the other side of the great hall, where Harry had hastily ducked his head down and tucked into his soup with newfound gusto. She narrowed her eyes in thought as she turned to look at me.

"Is Harry listening in on my news stories?" She pondered for a moment, picking at her salad once again. "Do you think that's considered talking behind his back if he overhears me? Because I definitely don't want to be known as the school gossip."

I laughed genuinely, forgetting for that second about Draco's absence. "Padma, I think you already have that title in the bag."

She glared at me indignantly. The sun peeked out from behind a cloud outside, the bright rays flooded into the great hall through the windows near the ceiling. I had to squint my eyes at the sudden brightness.

"Well." She continued after another bite of her salad. She eyed Harry as he walked out of the great hall, laughing at something with Ron Weasley. "Did I tell you about Harry and Ginny dating? I heard Dean Thomas isn't too happy about that one." She seemed to inflate in her own impressiveness.

"You told me that one yesterday," I said in a rather bored tone. She deflated quickly, hunching her shoulders over the table. "And you told me the day before too. I'm honestly starting to reconsider my faith in you as the school gossip. I'm kind of disappointed."

She sneered at me, not so playfully this time. I got the vibe that she rather liked her position as the girl to go to for gossip, despite her constant worry about it. She swung her legs out from under the table, finally abandoning the salad she had barely eaten, and hitched her book bag over her shoulder.

"Oh, come on Padma. You know I was only joking with you!" I whined as she stood up huffily from the table. "You don't have to leave! I'll restore you as the leading newswoman. I promise!"

She chortled in response, leaning over to take one last sip from her pumpkin juice. "Actually, I have to go to the library. Exams are in two weeks! I can't believe how the time as flown by." She paused, rocking back and forth on her heels. "Do you want to come with me?"

"Erm, I'd rather not," I grinned as I leaned past her to look around her body. "And, I have an odd tingling in my gut that you're going to stalk Terry Boot, not go to the library. You can do that perfectly well on your own."

Terry was walking quite hastily from the great hall. I had a nasty feeling that he was trying to lose Padma before she could try and follow him. Truth was he had been rather frightened of her ever since the quidditch game. I don't think he had ever seen that side of Padma. I also don't think he was overly excited to see it again.

"Oh fine," she retorted in exasperation, throwing her arms out in surrender as she started to walk backwards away from me. She managed to clip the back of a fourth year boy's head, but she didn't bother to apologize. "You win. You unlocked the secrets of my brain-"

"He's getting away," I pointed out lazily. She sent me a look of panic before turning on her heels and rushing out of the hall. I laughed to myself, earning concerned looks for the other students sitting around me.

I sat there for a few more minutes, picking at my mashed potatoes with dull interest. The great hall was starting to fill with students coming back from lessons. Their eagerness for the end of classes was felt in their animated discussions and playful arguments. I sighed once more before swinging my legs out from under the table. I pulled my book bag with me as I left the table, letting it drag on the floor behind me rather than hitch it onto my shoulder. A few students had to leap out of its way as it jumped positions on the raised stone floor.

I made the quick decision to try and find Draco, somewhat craving the faux arguments and lack of respect we held for one another. I was in the mood for picking a fight, probably because I would rather do that than study for finals.

I knew that he wouldn't be in the common room, as he had rarely blessed us with his presence these days. More often than not, he would sneak into the common room late at night- blaming it on his prefect duties with a convincing sneer. I knew better though.

As the only way to go from here was up, I took the main staircase slowly, my book bag thudding against the stone steps.

"Oh that poor monk just doesn't know what to do with himself anymore," a portrait of a skinny woman in renaissance period clothing was fussing as I passed by her on the third floor. By the time I had reached the seventh floor, I was no longer interested in searching the castle for Malfoy.

I realized, a little late might I add, that the castle had so many secret passageways, statues that opened with a password, trick steps, and corridors that hid behind fake walls that it would be damn near impossible for me to track down the blonde boy. I was just roaming the halls out of boredom at this point.

I was just about to turn a corner into another dimly-lit corridor, when I heard a loud crash followed by a shrill scream of frustration. I pulled out my wand, stopping for a moment to finally hitch my book bag over my shoulder.

"Professor-" I heard a low-toned voice say from down the corridor. I casually walked around the corner as if it were normal for me to happen across this sort of scene in my daily life. Professor Trelawney, bless that woman- I quit her class after the fifth year when I told the examiner that he should have died from a stake to the heart five years previously, was pulling herself up off the floor with the help of Harry Potter.

"I was just strolling along," she was saying as she patted her frazzled hair, "brooding upon certain dark portents-"

I immediately realized where we were with a quick glimpse around the corridor. The Room of Requirement was located just to the right of Harry and Professor Trelawney. Empty glass bottles were scattered across the stone floor, so I could only imagine what she was doing by this particular room.

I had only been in the room a few times, mostly when Padma and I wanted to have a girls' night together. The room would provide us with entertainment while we gossiped away, leaving only to sneak food from the kitchen in the middle of the night.

It was during the summer following fifth year that she had told me her knowledge of the room, coming clean about being a part of a secret defense group that met to practice spells, jinxes, and charms that would inevitably be helpful in the real world.

I was rather miffed when she told me. Really because she hadn't invited me, but she did explain that I was automatically disqualified from attendance due to my being a member of the Slytherin house. To this day I wish I would have been a member, mostly because Umbridge took a liking to me as much as she took a liking to mermaids and ogres.

"Not all of them do," Harry said quickly, pulling me out of my thoughts and back to the conversation, "but what happened? You screamed…"

Professor Trelawney pulled her shawls around her tight, staring defensively down at Harry. "I-well, I wished to deposit certain- ah- items in the room…"

Harry was asking quite sternly why she couldn't get in to hide them and I took the opportunity to back out of the corridor slowly, making sure to not make any noise. I didn't want them to notice I had been there, especially Harry, as he would have probably grilled me for twenty minutes on my reasoning for being there.

"Oh, I got in all right," she was saying as I turned the corner, "but there was somebody already in there."

I stopped in my tracks, leaning against the wall just out of sight. I slowed my breathing, trying to make as little noise as possible so I could hear. I chastised myself internally for judging Harry on eavesdropping on my conversations considering I was doing the exact same thing.

"Who? Who was in there?"

I was surprised at the demanding tone of Harry's voice, taken aback also by the pressure it exerted. Harry got away with so much at this school, if I had talked to Trelawney like that...I stopped my thoughts. If I had talked to Trelawney like that it would have ended in the same fashion as her conversation with Harry. That woman never did have all her nargles in once bunch.

I chastised myself again for sounding like Luna.

"The voice…it was whooping."

"Whooping?"

"Yep, gleefully."

There was a pause.

"Male or female?"

This went on for quite some time and I was just starting to get bored with the conversation when Harry informed her that he was going to see Professor Dumbledore and that it would be wise for her to join him on the trek.

"The lightning struck tower," she was saying as a noise of glass on glass echoed through the hallway. It sounded as if she had dumped her bottles elsewhere. "Calamity. Disaster. Coming nearer all the time…"

I rolled my eyes at this point, shoving myself off the wall and heading slowly down the corridor toward the staircase. That old bat was such a fraud; I couldn't imagine why Dumbledore hired her in the first place. I aimed a kick at a suit of armor that was nestled inside an alcove along the wall. It clanged in irritation.

"Oh stop, I probably hurt my toe more than I hurt you," I sneered at it. The clanging stopped and I took that as his realization that I was right.

I hopped down the stairs, taking a few at a time. I ignored the urge to slide down the banister, as my ride on Filch the Incredible Human Toboggan was still fresh in my mind and it was way too early for a repeat.

At this point, my book bag was feeling rather heavy and I started to not understand why I had taken it up seven floors worth of stairs. Before I would restart my trek on finding Draco, the first thing I planned on doing was to unceremoniously dump my bag onto my bed.

As soon as I entered the common room, however, there was an immediate shift in the air. There was a restlessness in the room that was different than the buzz from the other students. It was darker, fiercer, and twisted. I had a nasty feeling that it had nothing to do with studying for exams or finishing up last minute assignments. Everyone in the room was quiet, speaking only in hushed voices.

No one bothered to acknowledge the fact that I walked in the room. This alone set me off, as both Pansy Parkinson and Blaise Zabini sat hunched over a small table in the corner. They glowered at me as I made my way up the stairs toward the dorm, but eventually turned back toward each other without a word.

My senses were on high alert; the zing in the air set an uncomfortable panic deep in the pit of my stomach. The feeling slowly worked upward toward my heart, where it finally took up residence in the depths of my chest.

I dropped off my bag and flew from the common room. No one tried to trip me, curse me, or set my hair on fire as I left. I could no longer stand the dread that had overcome me and I decided to abandon my search on Draco. It was more important that I find Padma.

She was in the first place I looked- nestled in a corner of the library, surrounded by books on the history of ancient runes. A few pieces of parchment had scribbled translations on them, most likely from when she needed to remember something in a fix.

She flicked her gaze up to me for a second as I sat down across from her, moving the books to my right, where they created a shield from the rest of the library. She continued her work on the essay, but it looked like she had already gone way past the minimum requirement.

After all, she was a Ravenclaw.

"I need to talk to you about something," I hissed at her, grabbing the quill from her hand and setting it down harder than I had anticipated next to her parchment. Some ink splayed from the tip of the quill, landing in small spots across the wooden table.

"You couldn't have asked…" she responded as she looked up from her essay. "What's going on?" She must have seen the look of dread on my face, as she leaned forward over the table. "You look like you've seen a blast-ended skrewt."

Seeing the room of requirement reminded me of the secret defense group she had been a part of last year, which made me wonder if she knew about any of this Malfoy stuff by word of mouth. I took a deep breath, trying to find the right wording for my question. "Have…has that group from last year…have you guys been meeting at all?"

She looked at me as if I had grown three more heads. "Erm, no not at all actually. It kind of died out after Umbridge left. Are you okay, Nat? You're acting really strange."

I let out the breath I had been holding in. Something strange was happening in the castle. I could feel it in my bones. A chilling, frightening something had its grip on my heart and it refused to let go. I let all caution go to the wind in my haste to find out information.

"It's just that…there is something odd going on," I started quickly, lowering my voice to a whisper. "Everyone in the Slytherin common room is just sitting there, like they're waiting for something. I don't know, it's just really weird."

She shrugged her shoulders slowly, concern glazed over her eyes. "I mean, can you ask someone about it? Maybe they all realized they are failing their exams and will be kicked out at the end of the term. Wouldn't that be the day?"

I didn't join in with her on the chuckling. It died out quickly on her part, replaced by a stern expression on her face.

"Come on, Nat. Something is obviously bothering you. Just spill."

I bit my lip in worry, but decided that it was time to share my information with my best friend. I left out the parts of my relationship with Draco, as I knew that's the only thing she would focus on.

I told her about the note I found at the beginning of the term when we had been seated together in Defense Against the Dark Arts, how it had said something about an opal necklace and a meeting place. Then, how Katie Bell had been cursed by touching an opal necklace a short time after the time on the note.

I continued with my story, not pausing to acknowledge her gasp of horror. I told her about seeing Draco in Diagon Alley over Christmas break and how he was carrying a bottle of mead, then how a few days into the second half of the term I caught him sneaking around the library researching different poisons.

How a short time after that, Ron Weasley was poisoned after drinking from a bottle of mead. Padma groaned in dismay, letting her head fall into her hands.

I finished off the story quickly with my suspicions of Harry's information, his suspicions of mine, and that was why he was always eavesdropping on our conversations and seemingly following us around.

There was a brief silence after a finished and the only thing I could hear was the frantic heartbeat in my ears and my deep breathing, as if I had just finished running a marathon. My heart pounded in my chest as her face became impassive and I could no longer read her expression.

"Honey," she hissed at me after a few more minutes of silence, "why didn't you tell me about this earlier? Why didn't you go to Professor Dumbledore with all of this?"

I was shocked at my own cluelessness, dumbfounded that she had leapt to that very smart conclusion only minutes after hearing the entire story. I had known about all of this for months and never once had I thought about going to the headmaster. I sat back in my chair, shock running through my body.

If I had gone to Dumbledore after Katie Bell's attack, would I have been able to stop the attack on Ron Weasley? Would any of this have even happened?

Padma must have read my facial expressions, as she stood up in order to lean more over the table. She grabbed my hands and held them in hers. "This is not your fault," she said sternly. I could feel her hands shaking as they enclosed mine. "This is most definitely not your fault and I won't let you think that it is. It took quite awhile (though I still don't know why), but you told me and we're going to figure this out together."

"What do I do?" I whispered to her, gazing up at her face with wide eyes. Her expression moved from impassive to slightly scared.

"First things first, go to Professor Dumbledore. If you're right about this whole thing, more attacks could ensue. He's hurting people, Natalie. Now is not the time for house pride."

I nodded my head, standing up from the table slowly. House pride was the last thing on my mind, though betrayal of the trust Draco and I had built over the last year was at the forefront of my thoughts.

"Where are you going?" she asked with narrowed eyes. "Don't think you're doing this on your own anymore. Merlin knows you need a brain in this operation."

I ignored the urge to roll my eyes at her jibes. "You can't come with me." She opened her mouth to counter me, but I pressed on quickly. "If Dumbledore finds out that I told you about this whole thing and you didn't tell him, then you could be in big trouble too. I can't do that to my best friend."

She sat down slowly, her eyes as wide as teacup saucers. "You're right," she finally whispered, "I'll wait here. Come find me after you talk to him."

I nodded my head, my legs starting to numb from the thought of having to confess my knowledge to the headmaster of the school. I couldn't see him being very forgiving in these circumstances, but he had always found ways to surprise me.

I was consumed in my thoughts on what to say all the way to his office until I found myself standing in front of the gargoyle that guarded the staircase with no recollection of how I got there. I was just about to open my mouth and start guessing passwords, when a sharp voice echoed down the hallway.

"Garcia!"

I whipped around to see Professor McGonagall marching toward me, her nostrils flaring in suspicion as she gazed at me with narrowed eyes. I shuffled my feet guiltily, though I had no reason to act like I had done something wrong.

"What are you doing in front of the headmaster's office?" she asked, her mouth becoming a thin line that threatened to disappear from her face all together.

"I-I just needed to speak to him about something," I offered up quietly, kicking the toe of my shoe at a raised stone on the floor.

Her expression didn't soften as she said, "the headmaster is gone from the school on business, so I suggest you head back to your common room." When I didn't move, she gestured for me to continue down the hallway and I obliged quickly with the threat of detention looming over my head.

Professor Dumbledore was gone from the school; a dark buzzing was reeling around the Slytherin common room. This couldn't be good…could not be good at all.

I made my way slowly back to the library to tell Padma the news of Dumbledore's absence. I was, once again, consumed in my thoughts as I ran headlong into a tall something, stumbling slightly as I tripped over its feet.

It caught me, wrapping its arms around my waist as it pulled me up to a standing position. I looked up to see Draco Malfoy smirking down at me, looking joyously happier than I had seen him in ages.

"I was just looking for you!" he murmured against my hair as he planted a few kisses along my neck. I momentarily forgot about the entire situation, forgot about telling Padma, forgot about the feeling of dread in my chest. He pulled away from me and this time I saw a spark of worry in his eyes. "I need you to do something for me."

I pinched my eyebrows together in question, prompting him to go on.

He took a deep breath as he shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans. "I need you to stay in the common room tonight."

"Well, I was planning on studying with-"

"No," he cut me off firmly before planting a kiss on my lips. The kiss felt urgent, which only increased the panic that had been subdued for that short moment. "No, I need you to stay in the common room tonight. Please, I'm begging you. Stay there."

Just as I opened my mouth to respond, he hissed sharply through his teeth, clutching his left forearm in pain. He tried to move away from me, but he wasn't quick enough. I grabbed his arm and wrenched up the sleeve to his shirt.

There, planted on the smooth, pale skin was a dark skull, a snake coiled menacingly out of its mouth. I inhaled sharply as I recognized the symbol.

The dark mark had begun to burn.


	21. Chapter 21

**Hope you all cursed me to oblivion at that cliffhanger!  
>:)<strong>

**As always, my readers' rock and I really appreciate all the reviews and support you've been giving me throughout this entire series.  
>Chapter 21, here we come!<strong>

**Read, review, and enjoy!**

"What did you do?" I whispered in shock as I let go of his arm as if the dark mark itself had burned me. "Why do you have this? What have you been doing? What the hell is going on?"

He dragged me down toward the staircase, leading me in the direction of the common room. I was vehemently trying to pull my arm out of his grasp, but he was determined. He led me in silence down into the dungeons, pausing just in front of the password-protected door that opened into the common room.

"Stay in here," he begged hastily before whispering the password. His lips crashed onto mine in a moment of passion. The force pushed me up against the wall and he only backed away when the sound of the door sliding open raked against the stone.

He unceremoniously threw me into the common room and I had half a mind to yell out in protest, but he was already running down the dungeon corridor at top speed, his wand clenched tight into his hand. I huffed in annoyance, pitching myself into a chair as far away from everyone else as I could.

Crabbe and Goyle, who had evidently joined Pansy and Blaise at the table in the corner while I was gone, yanked up their left sleeve, grinning at each other maliciously as they made their way to the door of the common room. I caught sight of the dark marks on each of their arms, glaring up from their pale skin.

I knew I couldn't sit here anymore without the knowledge of what was going on. I flew from my seat, pushed past Crabbe and Goyle (who both cracked their knuckles at my squeezing through them), and skidded from the common room.

"Ouch!" a voice in the dimly lit hallway yelped. I lit the tip of my wand quickly and flashed it toward the floor, where Padma was sprawled on the stone. "Watch where you're running!" She picked herself up off the floor, brushing the backside of her skirt. "Why are you running anyways? Oh no matter-"

"Oi, you ain't supposed to be down 'ere!"

We looked at each other in shock before turning our attention toward the two burly boys that had just exited the common room. I assumed it was Crabbe who had spoken, as he was leering at us expectedly.

"I beg your pardon?" Padma asked politely. It was obviously a shock to her that they knew how to speak. I sometimes forgot about said ability. This time it just caught me off guard.

"You's a Ravenclaw, ain't ya?" Crabbe said as he pointed at my best friend with his wand. He wasn't trying to curse her, he was just stupid.

"Hey! Put that down!" I exclaimed as I rushed over and shoved his wand arm to his side. He didn't appear fazed at my touch. "You can't just go around pointing your wand at people. It's rude." A sudden idea clicked into my head. "You know Crabbe, I just spoke to Draco right before his dark mark burned."

Padma glanced at me with raised eyebrows, but didn't say anything. Crabbe and Goyle stuttered for a moment, obviously trying to decide whether I was to be believed or not.

"He wanted me to tell you to stay in the common room tonight. You don't need to go out there. He's got the whole thing under control."

Goyle pinched his eyebrows together and turned his attention to Crabbe, who was staring at me incredulously.

"How do I know you ain't lyin'?" He asked slowly, disbelief spreading across his face.

"You don't," I said cheerfully as I grabbed Padma's wrist and started to back away, "but that's the message he wanted me to relay. You wouldn't want to disobey, would you?"

In the moment it took for Crabbe and Goyle to look at each other, Padma and I were already tearing down the hallway, laughing manically at the two confused buffoons we left behind. As soon as we caught our breath, leaning against an alcove on the main floor, I asked her what she was doing by the Slytherin common room.

She looked at me grimly before pulling out a gold coin from her pocket. I took it in my hand, turning it over as I stared at it.

"What is this?"

She took the coin back and stuffed it into her pocket, pulling her wand out quickly afterwards. "This is the coin that summoned meetings last year. If they needed our help or if they wanted to meet, the coin would burn. It started burning while I was in the library." She paused as she let the news sink in. When I didn't get it, she went on. "Natalie, Harry's in trouble."

As if on cue, a loud crack sounded from a few floors above us, followed by a deafening crash that reverberated through the castle. I felt the shake of the stone under my feet. We looked at each other in panic before legging it up the main staircase, stopping only when we reached the seventh floor landing.

"I need to get into shape," Padma moaned as she placed her hands on her knees in an effort to catch her breath.

"What in Merlin's name was that noise?" I asked, but it didn't take too long to find out. In my peripheral vision, I saw a movement down the corridor followed quickly by a bright jet of red light. I threw myself against Padma, knocking us both to the ground, as the spell hit the wall behind us. Dust and a few pieces of stone showered our backs as we lay on the floor.

I pointed my wand over my shoulder, exclaimed _Petrificus__Totalus!,_and watched as the jet of light lit up the corridor as it passed quickly through it. I missed the target and the jet ricocheted off a portrait, eventually taking up residence in the ceiling.

I pushed myself off Padma and pulled her to her feet, watching the other end of the hallway closely.

"Nat," Padma hissed as she clutched my arm in fear, "what the hell is going on?"

"I don't know," I whispered back. Another crash sounded just around the corner at the end of the hallway and I started at a sprint toward the noise, despite Padma's terrified pleas for me to stop. I rounded the corner before throwing myself at the ground in an attempt to avoid another jinx that was sent toward me.

What lay before me was utter chaos. Pieces of wall were broken off and scattered across the stone floor. Grown men in black robes were dueling students. Shouts, screams, and spells shot through the corridor. I pushed myself off the ground, but this time stayed in a crouched position.

A man with red hair lay bleeding on the floor. It was only his face that was torn up pretty bad, as far as I could tell. In my crouched position, I made my way across the corridor, falling onto my knees once I reached him. I took out my wand and started to murmur some charms to try and heal some of the…oh Merlin, those were bite marks.

He groaned in pain, a tear escaped from his eye and trickled down his cheek. He looked up at me in gratitude.

"I'm sorry! I'm trying to help, but they aren't…" I murmured a few different spells over and over, but none of them worked. The bites were too deep or too cursed. I wasn't sure which. The only thing I could do was put a numbing spell over them in hope that it would take away the sting.

He let his head fall to the side, staring out into the battle. He whipped his head back toward me, a look of panic in his eyes. Grabbing my arm, he pointed toward two figures that were fiercely dueling.

"My…sister…" he managed to groan, pointing again down the corridor.

Ginny Weasley and Neville Longbottom were both locked into a fight with separate death eaters, sending jinx after jinx in order to deter the men from getting through the castle any further. A beefy man with brown hair raised his wand toward Ginny's back. I shot up from my crouched position and yelled _"__Stupefy!__"_

The curse hit in square in the chest and he flew back with the force, landing with a sickening thud at the base of the astronomy tower staircase. Professor Snape leapt over him and took the stairs two at a time. Neville had successfully disarmed his death eater and was running toward the staircase in an attempt to follow Snape.

"I promise I'll come back," I whispered to the man. Grabbing him under the arms, I dragged him against the wall so he would be out of the way of other death eaters. He patted my hand in apparent thankfulness before allowing himself to pass out in his alcove.

I crouched back down and rushed back into the battle, ducking behind a large piece of stone that had fallen from the ceiling. That must have been the loud crash Padma and I heard from the main floor.

"Oh, look-y here," a stringy, younger man exclaimed over the chaos as he looked down at me. I jumped in surprise, landing on my butt with my back against the large stone. "Such a pretty little thing. Shame I have to waste it."

"_Impedimenta_!" I shouted at the man who quickly deflected my jinx with a laugh.

"Think you're smarter than me, eh?" he shouted as he shot a wordless spell at me. I rolled out of the way. The jet ricocheted off the large stone and took up residence in a statue down the hallway. "Think you can out last me?" I dodged another spell, this one green, and it cracked against the wall.

The man's face froze in surprise. I watched in mild interest as he landed face first onto the stone floor. His attacker stood behind him, his wand still raised at chest height, only this time it was pointed at me.

Padma once told me about some muggle movies where there is a man and a woman who see each other across the room and time seems to stop as the battle ensues around them, but everything else doesn't matter at that point. They just see each other.

I laughed at her when she told me, claiming that muggle movies must be crazy for that to happen. Now, though, I mentally took back what I said as that was the only feeling I could relate to.

My father stood before me, staring in shock as he lowered his wand. We drank in each other as curses flew around us. He was visibly older than the last time I had seen him. Frown lines wound their way around his mouth and his forehead. Flecks of gray were evident in his black hair, which was tied into a ponytail at the base of his neck.

He moved toward me with fierce determination. "What are you doing here?" he hissed, grabbing onto my arm with force and pulling me into a standing position. "This is dangerous you can't-"

I ripped my arm from his grasp, glaring at him with all the hate I could muster. "You can't tell me what to do. You are no father to me."

He took a step back in shock as I turned from him, running headfirst into the fight to get a good distance away from him.

"_Crucio!_You can't dance forever! _Crucio!__" _ A stubby man was throwing curses at Ginny Weasley, who had abandoned trying to duel him and was now focusing on avoiding the streams of light at all costs.

Snape and Malfoy busted from the staircase, followed by a few other men and women that I had never seen before. Malfoy had a look of pure terror on his face as he gazed at the chaos. Snape took a rough hold of his arm, dragging him down the corridor.

"It's over!" Snape shouted at the other death eaters, "Time to go!"

The small band of people from the staircase rushed past me as I threw myself against the wall. I stuck out my foot in an immature effort to trip one of them, but a hand reached out and grabbed my shirt, dragging me along with the crowd.

"Mmm…a snack, Severus," a low voice echoed in my ear. His breath stank of blood, the sour smell of sweat clenched closely to his matted hair. A ripple of terror waved through me as the man lovingly caressed a finger down the nape of my neck. His long nail scratched my skin.

Out of the corner of my eye, I caught the eye of Draco Malfoy, who was frozen in shock at the scene before him. He took a quick step toward us, as if to say something to the man that had me in his arms, but Snape stood in front of him, blocking Malfoy from my line of vision.

"Don't be a fool, Fenrir," Snape hissed, "We must go now. Time has run out."

There was a slight pause and I was sure the man was leering at Snape in disgust. "Just one little bite…" Footsteps echoed through the corridor, pounding against the stone floor quickly as if the person were at a run. The man dropped me quickly before launching himself at the sound. A shot of pain slid up my spine. I looked up in time to see the man tackle Harry to the ground.

"Come," Snape demanded of his crew, "leave the werewolf. His own foolishness will hinder our plan if we don't leave now."

Snape stepped aside, making his way down the hallway. Draco was still standing there, staring at me in shock. I felt a dribble of blood run down my neck where the man had scratched me.

"Draco! Now!"

Without a word, Draco stumbled away from me, only stopping for one last glance before he rounded the corner and vanished from my view.

Two more death eaters, a man and a woman, tore past me after Snape and Malfoy. They covered their heads with their arms in an attempt to ward off any spells that may come their way.

"I know!" Harry shouted through the crowd, "I'm on it!" He aimed a hex at a large, blonde death eater who was shooting off hexes in every direction. It hit him in the face, and he gave a howl of pain before pounding toward the crew that had an immense head start over him.

Harry pushed himself off the ground, the werewolf lay motionless next to him. He was already at a full sprint before he had reached a full standing position. I tucked in my legs so he wouldn't trip on them, his trainers were stained with blood and they left fading red footprints as he ran down the hallway.

"Oh Merlin! Natalie!" Padma rushed past Neville, who was groaning in pain with his hands wrapped around his stomach. "Oh my gosh, are you okay? We need to get you to the hospital wing-"

She made a motion to pull me up, but someone else pushed her gently out of the way. My father knelt before me. His stare was stern, but full of an emotion I couldn't place. He pushed my hair off my forehead, tucking some behind my ear.

"Just know- I will never stop being your father." He kissed me roughly on the forehead before disappearing down the hallway, rounding the corner that Harry had taken.

"Natalie," Padma asked slowly, "was that-?"

I nodded quickly, shaking myself from the thoughtful stupor that had come over me. "Yeah, that was. Can you help me up? I'm feeling a little weird."

After a few failed attempts, we finally managed to help me to my feet. She tucked an arm around my waist as I threw an arm around her shoulders. Ginny and Professor McGonagall were helping Neville to his feet. McGonagall was muttering a few spells under her breath, which seemed to stem the pain from his stomach.

He smiled gratefully toward her as Ginny pulled him to a standing position.

"We have to follow Harry. He was heading toward the main staircase, I think," she broke from the two and sped past us, leaving Neville and McGonagall in her wake. I turned to look at Padma, who shrugged in response. I peeled myself off her, taking only a moment to regain my strength and balance, before we slowly followed Ginny toward the main staircase.

The destruction on our trek was unfathomable to me. Hogwarts was supposed to be this serene castle, where the only bad thing that happened was when you ran into Peeves and he poured a pot of ink on your head right before a lesson.

Portraits hung loosely from the walls, their owners taking up residence in other frames that were unharmed. Large stone pieces littered the staircase, chunks from where they were taken out of the wall left gaping holes. We witnessed two smaller female students, who were clutching in each other in fright, crying in a small alcove just off the third floor landing.

It reminded me grimly of ma and Padma at that age, though we would have been hiding in an alcove for many different, more innocent reasons.

The hourglasses that held the house points were shattered, their contents spilled onto the floor in an ironic mix of green, red, blue, and yellow. That was the only time, in my mind, that the four houses melted together without any fuss.

The large, oak doors that led to the front lawn were thrown open, the light flooded the grass. A good number of people were already standing out on the grass, hugging each other in grief. A few students still had their wands clenched tightly in their fists, as if the death eaters were going to come back any minute.

There was a yelp of shock, followed by murmurings and pointing from the crowd.

"What're they all lookin' at?" I heard Hagrid grumble to an exhausted looking Harry. The crowd slowly made their way toward the huddled mass that was sprawled underneath the astronomy tower. A large, misty dark mark was posted just over the tower, giving it an ominous, dreadful look.

Harry pushed past me, an oddly detached look on his face. I glanced back down at the mass, squinting my eyes to try and figure out what it was.

Harry bent down and picked up a trinket that lay next to it and that's when realization hit me like a ton of bricks. The limbs were bent at odd angles; the white beard lay frizzy against the extravagant robes. Half-moon glasses were askew on the crooked nose.

When I realized that Albus Dumbledore was dead, I felt as if my soul had crumbled within me. This was a man who was never afraid, never unsure of himself. He was valiant in times of trouble, funny in times of laughter, and always had something puzzling to say at the welcoming feast.

Never would I have imagined that man lying crumbled and broken at the base of the astronomy tower, dead. And if that could happen to him…what would happen to the rest of us?

I turned away just as Ginny Weasley pushed through the crowd after her boyfriend. I didn't want to see anymore. I couldn't believe this was happening.

Padma grabbed my hand in emotional support, clenching it tightly within her own. I squeezed her hand, thankful that I made it through the night with my best friend at my side.

"There's something I have to check on," I muttered to her as I went to the direction of the hospital wing. Padma followed me. I remembered the man I had tried to help- remembered the promise I had made to him. I was also very curious as to what had happened to him, so I couldn't say I was being completely virtuous.

Though, after being snatched up by the werewolf, I had a nasty feeling I already knew what had happened to him.

Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Luna Lovegood, and ex-Professor Lupin were gathered around a bed near the end of the ward. I caught sight of red, flaming hair rested on the pillow. As I made my way down to the bed, the four shot me curious looks.

I passed by Neville, who was still wrapped in the fetal position in bed, but apparently fast asleep. He snored loudly as we passed and, in other circumstances, I would have thought it funny.

Madam Pomfrey was dabbing a green ointment on his face, tsk-ing quietly to herself as the ointment sank into his deep wounds.

"Who is he?" I asked, turning toward Hermione. She had tears running down her cheeks, taking with them any grime and dust that covered her face. It made her cheeks look streaky and, if possible, even more dirty.

"He's my oldest brother," Ron piped up, narrowing his eyes at me, "what's it to you, Garcia?"

"Ronald!" Hermione hissed at him, but I didn't shrink back from his jibe. As a member of the Slytherin house, I had a feeling he more so blamed the entire evening on me.

"What, Hermione? She just walks in here and asks-"

I took a deep breath, gazing at the unrecognizable man. "I tried to help him," I said, effectively cutting off Ron. He quieted down immediately, staring at me in awe. "I mean, I saw him in the corridor and I tried to heal the wounds, but they wouldn't. So, I put a numbing charm on them and dragged him toward cover." I glanced up at Ron. "I wanted to make sure he was…you know…still alive."

"I thought there was some sort of charm on his wounds." Madam Pomfrey turned to me after a moment of silence. "I never thought I would be saying this, Natalie Garcia," she glared down at me over her glasses, "but you would make an excellent nurse. That was a very brave thing you did, to help a man in the midst of trouble."

I took a step toward her, pointedly staring at the green ointment. "Why aren't they healing? I tried everything I could think of-"

"Werewolf bites," Lupin finally added into the conversation, after he had contemplated the scene before him thoughtfully, "cannot be healed. There is no cure for them."

The hospital wing doors banged open, making us all jump in surprise. Harry and Ginny were hurrying over- looks of mixed fright and sadness on their faces. Hermione rushed over and hugged Harry tightly as Ginny made her way over to the bed, standing next to Ron.

I broke away from Madam Pomfrey, gesturing toward Padma that we should probably go. She nodded in agreement. Harry gazed at me with narrowed eyes as we stared at each other for a moment.

He took a step toward me right as I took a step toward him. He opened his mouth to say something, but I beat him to it.

"I know you probably hate me," I started and he made a noise to interrupt me, but I pushed on, "But I think, when you have a moment to yourself, it's time for us to sit down and talk."

Without another word, I spun on my heel and, with Padma, marched out of the hospital wing.


	22. Chapter 22

**WAHH!  
>I can't believe it's here!<br>The FINAL chapter of the first part of the series.**

**I seriously love every single person who thought my story was good enough to read, put on alerts, favorite stories, etc. You were one of the main reasons that I continued this story and I think you should all give yourselves a big round of applause for being so awesome!**

**I want to thank all the people who reviewed my story before continuing on with the final part. You are all fantastic and all sorts of wonderful!  
>Nizuna Fujieda, JuicyLucy921, Cassia4u, ashrachellexx, lenie954, peaceoutrunner23, Natalie Dae Carr, WeaverOfBlackMagic, Hereliesdobbyafreeelf, KittyKat98, MsCorvetteLuver, dreamy-silhouettes, SeaNymph13, LandOfTheLivingSkys, skitsophraniac, <strong>

**And FINALLY, watch out for the second part of the series coming out in just a few days. Put it on your alerts, favorites, etc as it's going to be a rollercoaster ride!**

**Read, review, and enjoy!**

The day following Dumbledore's death was traitorously warm and sunny. It would have been a beautiful outside, if not for the heavy feeling that set over the entire castle.

I wasn't sure what had happened up in the astronomy tower, but I was sure that Harry would come find me when he was ready. That boy was too curious for his own good and I know that he would want to find out the truth. We could probably figure it out with our stories combined.

It was still early in the morning, breakfast had just barely started. Padma and I were perched out on a large rock that was set a few feet into the lake. The morning mist rose from the water, creating a fog like appearance over it.

"What do you think is going to happen now?" she asked quietly. Her chin was rested on her knees, which were drawn close to her chest. Her arms wrapped around her shins in comfort. She rocked back and forth on her bottom, contemplating the lake with a far off gaze in her eyes.

I was lying on my stomach stretched out on the rock, taking up most of the space. My chin was resting on my palms, my feet kicked up at a ninety degree angle into the air. I didn't say anything for a moment. We were both beyond exhausted from the night before, but found that we were oddly unable to fall asleep.

We also found that we were unwilling to be separated from each other as we spend most of the night hugging each other tightly in an alcove, much like the two young girls we had come across before setting eyes on Dumbledore's body.

The night's events made me feel small and helpless, which was a bigger change than what I was used to. At the beginning of the year, I thought it was going to be another normal year of detentions, terrorizing Pansy Parkinson, and arguing with Draco Malfoy.

The thought of him fluttered across my mind, the memory of the look of pure fright on his face the night before as he saw me in the arms of the werewolf. I pushed him out of my thoughts, not wanting to accept the fact that he hadn't done anything to save me. That he had just stood there and watched.

A feeling of cold grief spread through my body as if someone had doused me in ice water. I realized that I cared for Malfoy more than I should, that I put myself into his grasp and he only used my foolishness to manipulate me. Tigers never do change their stripes. I was angry with him, angrier than I realized until that moment.

"I don't know, Padma," I finally answered her. My voice had a steely glint to it and if she noticed, she didn't say anything about it. We continued our depressed stare into the snow-capped mountains.

"Padma, is that you?" a small, quiet voice from behind us lamented. We turned to look over our shoulders to see Parvati and Lavender Brown climbing onto the rocks in an effort to reach the one we were perched on.

They both scrambled up. Parvati tucked her legs underneath her in a kneeling position, Lavender sat on her bottom with her legs crossed in front of her. Both girls were looking at us with somber expressions. None of us knew what to say at that moment.

"Padma, mum and dad are here," Parvati said after a few minutes, "they want us to come home with them. They think it isn't safe here anymore."

I let out a harsh snort. Of course, her parents were very right. Hogwarts was breeched by a group of death eaters that tried to go on a killing spree. They managed to off the headmaster. This place was as safe as the world just outside these mountains.

After a few more minutes of silence, the four of us slid off the rock, Lavender almost toppled into the lake, but managed to catch her balance on another rock. We all laughed at the sight of her flailing her arms in the air, but it was cut short when we remembered exactly what was going on.

An awkward silence fell over us once again as we continued our trek up the front lawn.

Parents were flooding into the castle, hugging their children tightly. A boy that I recognized as Zacharias Smith was being half-dragged by his irate father from the Great Hall. Seamus Finnigan was just ending a screaming match with his mother about how he wanted to stay at the school with his friends.

Memos were already being posted on the walls of the funeral service that would be held in a few days for Professor Dumbledore. He was to be buried right on the school grounds.

"- will be postponed indefinitely," Professor McGonagall was saying to the student body as we walked into the great hall. She had a grief-stricken expression as she sat back down in her seat. The throne-like chair that Dumbledore usually sat in remained empty, though his place was set as if he were just running late.

"Oh! Padma!" a short, dark haired woman sighed as she pulled my best friend into a tight hug. Padma hugged her back, squeezing her eyes shut in a manner that I recognized as her efforts not to cry. She moved onto her father, who was shorter than the average man. He pulled her tight into his chest and this time, Padma could not control the water works that erupted.

Her mother wiped the tears from both her girls' faces as she pulled them both into a hug once more. "I'm just so glad you girls are alright." She pulled back, drinking in the sight of them as if they had just risen from the dead. "When I heard about the fight-"

She made a sudden movement to grab Lavender and mine's hands, pulling us both into a tight hug. "And my second string children!" she cried loudly. A few families gazed at us in concern before turning back to their own students. "I'm so glad you both are okay too!"

"We should probably get going," her father pressed, gazing at his watch. "I don't want to get stuck waiting for a portkey to open up."

We all knew they were just going to apparate as soon as they reached the village, but like most families that came in; their main concern was getting their children and leaving the premises as soon as possible. Many were afraid of a second attack while ministry officials and family members came pouring in from all sides of the country. In reality, they had a right to be nervous about this. If they wanted to annihilate any Dumbledore or Harry Potter supporters, this would be the ideal time to show up.

Padma turned to me and hugged me tightly. I felt the burn in the back of my eyes and I immediately looked up to the ceiling to deter the tears from falling onto my face.

"Promise that you'll look after yourself," she muttered in my ear as she pulled away from me. I promised her with a nod of my head. "And promise that you'll write. Every single day." I smiled and chuckled, nodding again vigorously.

I had the chance to hug her one more time before her parents ushered her and Parvati from the great hall, both girls turning to wave good bye to Lavender and I. We returned the gesture and kept waving until the family had turned the corner and vanished.

"Take care of yourself, Natalie," Lavender said quietly as she squeezed my arm. I smiled softly at her, patting her hand in agreement.

"You too, Lavender. I'll see you around."

We broke off from each other. She headed toward the end of the half- empty Gryffindor table, obviously unsure of where to go now that her best friend had left the school. We both were in the same boat and, if I had half a brain, I would have gone to sit with her.

My mind was on auto drive, however. I spun on my heel and marched from the hall. I just wanted to get away from the chaos and noise. The families were really starting to come in now and the hall was slowly starting to fill up with young children and parents.

I headed back toward the lake. The sun was now set high in the sky, though it hadn't reached midmorning yet. The mist off the lake had since evaporated, leaving the sun's rays to bounce and reflect off the shimmery water.

It lapped against the bank, slapping joyfully against the slippery rocks and logs that lined the shore. I untied my sneakers and rolled up my dirty jeans before dipping my feet into the cool water. It was a shock at first, but as my skin got used to it I rather enjoyed the clean feeling.

I figured my next plan of action would be to take a shower, as I was sure my face and hair was still caked with dirt and dust from the exploding stone. I waded in a little deeper, going far enough to where the water rose to mid-shin.

I tipped my head back, letting my curly hair fall from the messy bun and cascade down my back. The sun's warmth felt nice against my skin. I felt myself start to relax for the first time in almost 24 hours.

"Natalie!"

I glanced over my shoulder to see Harry Potter making his was slowly down the grassy lawn. He paused for a moment to undo his sneakers and roll up his jeans before sinking his own feet into the cool water of the lake. He waded over to me, crossing his arms around his chest.

"I was mad at you last night," he started after a moment, "I thought everything that had happened was your fault. I actually had no intention of talking to you."

I kicked a rock with my toe and the small waves from the lake continually carried it back toward my foot. "Why are you?"

I watched him closely as he squinted his eyes in the sun's rays. "Ron and Hermione told me how you tried saving Bill. You didn't know him at all, didn't even know who he was. People associated with Draco Malfoy don't do that."

I sighed quietly as he turned his attention onto me. "I think that's one of your flaws, Harry. You think of the world in black and white, when it's not." I looked over at him to see that he was staring at me. "Draco and I had a…different relationship than we usually did. I don't even know what you want to call it. I cared for him though, but that doesn't mean that I cared for what he did."

He sucked in a harsh breath. "You knew about his mission, then?"

I shook my head. "I had my- what's the word?- suspicions. Though, I didn't know what it was or why. I had a feeling he was behind Katie Bell's cursing and Ron's poisoning. I was hoping you could fill me in on the rest." I had finally kicked the rock too far; as the current dragged it out farther into the lake. He was silent for a moment, obviously going back and forth on what to say.

"He did curse Katie, through the necklace he gave to Madam Rosmerta. She was under imperio. He also poisoned Ron through the mead he thought Slughorn would re-gift to someone else. His ultimate mission was to kill Professor Dumbledore." I felt my heart fall to my knees at these words. It made sense, though, as to why he was always gone. He had to plan the entire thing himself. "If Malfoy failed, Voldemort would have killed him and his family. It was his way of getting back at Malfoy senior."

I played with my hands for a moment, letting the news sink in. "So, he obviously didn't fail then," I said quietly. Draco killed Professor Dumbledore. It was hard to believe he had something so evil inside of him.

"No," Harry shook his head, "I was up there. Dumbledore almost had him convinced to join the Order. The death eaters broke through the barrier, though. Snape ended up killing Dumbledore."

"I knew I hated that bastard," I said vehemently. Harry chuckled quietly. My heart rose a little bit in my chest. So Draco hadn't killed Dumbledore, he hadn't been able to. The only question was- "How did the death eaters get in the castle? I thought it was chalk full of security."

The sun had peeked over the mountains now. Peels of laugher emitted from around us as parents took young children to the bank of the lake to play in the water while their older siblings said goodbye to friends.

"He fixed the vanishing cabinet in the room of requirement-"

I laughed genuinely, effectively cutting him off. He gazed in concern at me for a moment. "You mean to tell me," I managed to stumble out through my laughter, "that cabinet we used to stuff Montague into a few years back was ultimately used to let in an army of death eaters?" I don't know why the entire idea was funny to me, but I couldn't stop laughing.

Harry started chuckling for a moment at my laughter and, soon after that, we both had tears running down our faces while we clutched our sore stomachs. I was bent over, my hands clenched tightly onto my knees at the thought of death eaters crawling out of a cabinet into a school filled with teenage students.

"Oh Merlin," I finally said after I caught my breath, "that should not be that funny."

We were quiet for another moment as the giant squid broke the surface of the lake a few hundred yards out, swinging his tentacles lazily into the air. I envied him. The only thing he had to worry about was catching something for dinner. He had no idea of the perils our world was about to face. And he didn't particularly care either.

"Nat!"

We both turned to see Vanessa half-running, half-falling down the lawn in an effort to get to me as fast as she can. I smiled at the sight of her before turning back to Harry.

"I don't know what you're planning on doing," I said to him as I pulled myself out of the lake. Grass stuck to my wet feet. "And I don't even know if I'll see you next year. Whatever you do, though, just know that I'll be thinking about you. Good luck, Harry."

If there was anything he thought I was going to say, it obviously wasn't that. He turned his expression of surprise into a joyful smile as he pulled himself out of the water after me.

"Thanks, Natalie. Good luck to you too." He picked up his shoes and socks before making his way up the lawn toward the castle. He nodded at my sister politely as he passed her.

Once she reached me, she pulled me into a tight hug. I thought my ribs were going to crack and I had to poke her in the side to get her to let me go.

"Oh my gosh, once I heard the news I got here as quick as I could. Are you okay? Is anything hurt? Why are you so dirty? Merlin, don't tell me what you actually fought someone." She paused as she sucked in a deep breath. "And was that Harry Potter?"

I laughed as I threaded an arm around her waist. "Can we go home? I want to see mum and Eli. I just have to quick pack up my stuff though."

She stopped for a moment, pulling my arm so that I faced her. "Wait, you don't want to stay for Dumbledore's funeral? I thought you were going to make me book a room."

I shook my head as I picked up my shoes and socks from the edge of the bank. They were covered in dirt and dust, much like me, and once I took a shower I was going to throw all my clothes in the wash. "Being here…I just don't want to be here," I said shortly. "Padma left already with her family. Everyone is depressed." I pointed to the base of the astronomy tower. "Right over there I saw Dumbledore's dead body. I just want to leave."

Vanessa nodded in understanding as she threaded an arm over my shoulders. "Come on. Let's go get your stuff then."

As we walked back up to the castle, I realized a few things about my sixth year.

First, Padma was going to be my best friend for the rest of my life. She had been there with me through everything. Through my ups and downs, through me not telling her the truth (even though she didn't know it yet). I promised myself that I would tell her about my rollercoaster ride with Draco the first chance I got.

Second, Draco Malfoy was never going to change. I was still angry with myself at how much I had let him interfere with my thoughts, with my life. He destroyed the Hogwarts I had loved since I got my acceptance letter at the tender age of eleven. This place no longer was the castle with the trick doors and poltergeists. He destroyed that for me. I would probably never forgive him.

Third, I was going to go home and hug my mother. I probably wouldn't shower. I probably wouldn't even bother changing my clothes. She did so much for me that I didn't even realize until now. I could have grown up to be just like Malfoy- where Voldemort threatened me into a mission that I didn't want. One that could have resulted in the death of me or my family. She ensured that we didn't have that life by picking up and leaving everything she knew, everything she loved. That couldn't have been easy for her.

As I entered the castle for the last time in my sixth year, I thought of all the reasons to not give up hope. Padma, my mother, sister, and brother. I love all these things and I hold them very near and dear to my heart. I promised myself that I would continue to fight for their freedom, that I wouldn't stop until Voldemort was stopped.

And that was a promise I vowed to keep.


	23. Chapter 23

**Why hello all my wonderful readers!  
>Just wanted to send a quick message out to everyone who has added this story to the alerts. I know many of you added me as an author alert, which is awesome by the way, but if you haven't I didn't want you to miss out on the opportunity to read the second part of the series!<strong>

**Chapter one of Better Days Ahead is now out and available to read!  
>Review it, add it to your alerts, or whatever you want to do!<strong>

**Let me know what you think!**


End file.
